Effects of horizontal restrainer on seismic performance of steel plate shear wall

Steel plate shear wall (SPSW) can effectively resist horizontal earthquake forces by allowing the development of diagonal tension field action after the thin infill plates buckle in shear, and then dissipate earthquake energy through the cyclic yielding of the infill plate in tension. This research proposes a new type SPSW named as restrained steel plate shear wall (R-SPSW). A horizontal restrainer is made from a pair of steel tube member sandwiching over the infill steel panels from two sides using through bolts and pin-connected to the boundary columns of an SPSW. This research conducted extensive numerical studies on the seismic behavior of R-SPSW using the nonlinear FEM method and simplified strip model. The design method for the R-SPSW was developed based on the numerical studies. Four 2-story 2.2-meter wide by 6.5-meter tall SPSWs were constructed and cyclically tested to a roof drift of 0.05 radians at National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE) in 2007. The low yield strength steel plates of 2.6 mm were adopted for all four specimens. Two out of four SPSWs are R-SPSW. The effectiveness of the horizontal restrainers on the responses of the SPSW was investigated. Analytical and experimental results show that horizontal restrainers effectively reduced the force demands on the boundary elements, which are the beam and column surrounding the infill panels.. The paper concludes with recommendations on the design and analysis of the SPSW constructed with horizontal restrainers.