Shear strength and stiffness enhancement of cross-stiffened steel plate shear walls

Abstract

Nowadays, the use of steel plate shear walls, as an effective seismic resisting system, has been of great interest in enhancing the lateral strength and stiffness of buildings both in renovation and seismic rehabilitation of existing concrete and steel structures. In the present research, the shear strength and stiffness of steel plate shear walls in various configurations of stiffeners, including horizontal, vertical, and horizontal-vertical, were investigated by finite element method and finally semi-empirical relations were presented in this regard. The results indicated that the shear strength and stiffness of stiffened SPSWs were well predicted by the proposed relations, but increasing the number of stiffeners above a certain range will not have a significant effect on enhancing the stiffness and strength.