Finite element modeling of composite plate shear walls/concrete-filled (C-PSW/CF)

A Composite Plate Shear Wall/Concrete Filled (C-PSW/CF) is a "sandwich" type of construction by which concrete (without rebars) is enclosed between steel plates connected by tie bars. Since this system is relatively new, researchers as well as practicing engineers sometimes need to develop nonlinear model of these walls to be able to run pushover analyses, cyclic analyses, and seismic response analysis of C-PSW/CF. Different methods can be used for such non-linear analysis, as a function of project needs and computational resolution desired. This paper focuses on finite element modelling; it describes the details of the LS-DYNA models of the Cand T- shaped CPSW/CF specimens tested in SEESL at University at Buffalo and shows the comparison between test data with the results of finite element analysis of specimens. As such, the objective of this paper is to present the details of a model used to replicate the hysteretic behavior of the tested specimens, and then answers questions that cannot be investigated or measured from tested specimens. More specifically, this allowed to quantify the respective contributions of steel and concrete to the total flexural strength throughout the entire cyclic history, where (for example) steel contributed to 54 % of the total flexural strength in the positive direction during the initial cycles of hysteretic response, degrading to 45 % at the onset of local buckling in the web, but recovering to 80 % upon strength global strength degradation of the wall.