Equivalent plastic hinge length of vertical corrugated steel plate composite shear walls

The vertical corrugated steel plate composite shear walls exhibit good seismic performance due to the geometric advantages of the embedded corrugated steel plate. Under the requirements of performance-based seismic design, the determination of the equivalent plastic hinge length of the vertical corrugated steel plate composite shear walls is essential to reasonably evaluate its plastic deformation capability, but the existing formulas at home and abroad are difficult to reflect their complex combination. There is thus a need to develop a specific simplified formula.Based on the previous experimental results of the authors' research group, through the analysis of the experimental failure phenomenon and mechanical performance of the vertical corrugated steel plate composite shear walls, the corresponding finite element (FE) model was established by the OpenSEES software. The FE model was used to examine the effects of geometric parameters of corrugated steel plates, boundary elements, distributed steel bars, concrete strength, axial compression ratio, and height-width ratio. It is found that the volume ratio of the corrugated steel plate can more effectively reflect the effects of geometric parameters of corrugated steel plate, while the concrete strength and the distributed steel bars are inversely correlated with the equivalent plastic hinge length. Through theoretical analysis and derivation, a multi-parameter-controlled simplified calculation formula for the equivalent plastic hinge length of vertical corrugated steel plate composite shear walls is presented, which is suitable for the estimation of plastic deformation capacity and can be used for the elastoplastic analysis of this type of composite shear walls. © 2022, Editorial Office of Journal of Building Structures. All right reserved.