Behavior of Double Skin Composite Wall Subjected to In-Plane Cyclic Loading

Abstract

Double skin composite walls are composed of two steel plate “skins” connected by tie bars, with the space between them filled with concrete. They were developed to reduce wall thickness, to enhance constructability, and to enable rapid construction by eliminating the use of formwork and reinforcing bars. In the present study, cyclic testing was performed to investigate the seismic behavior of isolated and coupled double skin composite walls with rectangular and T-shaped cross sections. The wall specimens failed mainly by tensile fracture of the welded joints at the wall base and coupling beams, or by local buckling of the steel plates. Because of their large depth, the ductility of the wall specimens was not as good as that of beams having less depth. In particular, the ductility of the walls was significantly affected by the strengthening methods used for the wall base. The load-carrying capacities of the isolated and coupled wall specimens were evaluated using plastic stress distributions in their cross sections, which provided satisfactory predictions.