Analysis of Steel Plate Shear Walls Using the Modified Strip Model

Abstract

Unstiffened steel plate shear walls are an effective and economical method of resisting lateral forces on structures due to wind and earthquakes. Structural engineers require the ability to assess the inelastic structural response of steel plate shear walls using conventional analysis software that is commonly available and is relatively simple and expeditious to use. The strip model, a widely accepted analytical tool for steel plate shear wall analysis, is refined based on phenomena observed during loading of steel plate shear walls in the laboratory. Since the original strip model was proposed as an elastic analysis tool, these refinements are made primarily to achieve an accurate representation of yielding and eventual deterioration of the wall, although moderate improvements in initial stiffness predictions are also made. In assessing each of the proposed refinements, modeling efficiency is evaluated against the accuracy of the solution. A parametric study using the modified strip model examines the effect of varying the angle of inclination of the tension strips on the predicted inelastic behavior of the model. Notably, it was found that the ultimate capacities of steel plate shear wall models with a wide variety of configurations vary little with the variation of the inclination of the strips.