Seismic behavior of buckling-restrained steel plate shear wall with assembled multi-RC panels

This paper presents a new buckling-restrained steel plate shear wall system with assembled multi reinforced concrete (Multi-RC) panels (MBRSPSW). The finite element model of MBRSPSW system with hinged frame, validated by existing experimental results, is developed to investigate the general mechanical behaviors, such as hysteresis property, horizontal shear force, internal force demands of boundary columns and damage of RC panels. Three key parameters, including steel plate slenderness ratio, gap width between RC panels and number of RC panels, are discussed. To investigate the general behavior of MBRSPSW system and conventional buckling-restrained steel plate shear wall (BRSPSW) system, two test specimens with rigid frame corresponding to actual moment-resisting frame are further conducted. The results show that MBRSPSW system provide stable bearing capacity and good energy dissipation capacity by dividing single RC panel into multi-RC panels. The internal force demands of the boundary column of MBRSPSW system, especially for the bending moment, decrease significantly compared to that of BRSPSW system. Damage of RC panels of MBRSPSW system is greatly decreased compared with that of BRSPSW system. Number of RC panels and the gap width of MBRSPSW system have significant effect on the tension damage of RC panels, especially for the number of RC panels. BRSPSW system is found to fail prior to MBRSPSW system with a plastic hinge at the bottom of boundary column in test investigation and damage of RC panels of the latter is much lower than that of the former. The experimental observations agree well with the numerical results. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.