Effect of height-to-width ratio on composite wall under compression

Double skin composite walls are increasingly popular and have been applied to many safety-related facilities. They come from the concept of composite slabs. Conventional connectors such as shear studs and binding bars were used in previous studies to act as the internal mechanical connectors to lock the external steel faceplates to the concrete core. However, the restraint effects of these connectors were sometimes not strong enough. In this research, a recently proposed unique type of steel truss was employed along the wall height to enhance the composite action between the two materials. Concrete-filled tube columns were used as the boundary elements. Due to the existence of boundary columns, the restraints of steel faceplates to the concrete differ significantly for the walls with different widths. Therefore, there is a need to explore the effect of height-to-width ratio on the structural behavior of the wall. In the test program, three specimens were designed with the height of 3000 mm, the thickness of 150 mm, and different widths, to simulate the real walls in practice. Axial compression was applied by two actuators on the tested walls. The axial behavior of the walls was evaluated based on the analysis of test results. The influences of height to-width ratio on structural performance were evaluated. Finally, discussion was made on code-based design.