Experimental and numerical evaluation of the seismic behavior of steel plate shear walls with and without openings

Steel plate shear walls are one of the modern seismic engineering systems used as a lateral load-bearing system. In this study, two shear walls specimens with and without an opening, incorporating stiffeners in their upper beams, were subjected to cyclic loading in an experimental setting. The walls had a scale of one-third and were tested under cyclic displacement control loading. Subsequently, due to the limitations of specimen fabrication and laboratory testing, the ABAQUS software was used for numerical modeling and analysis, with a total of 6 models being numerically analyzed. Prior to the numerical analysis and in order to verify the results, a numerical validation was performed using a specimen with an opening of 25% and its corresponding numerical model. The opening in the specimens was considered as the independent variable, and the ductility, maximum base shear, and stiffness of the models were considered as dependent variables. For this purpose, the hysteretic curve of each specimen was extracted, which was then used to derive the equivalent bilinear and backbone curves. Finally, based on these curves, the models’ seismic parameters, including the base shear, ductility, and stiffness were calculated. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that with an increase in the percentage of the opening, the parameters of base shear, ductility, and stiffness experience a change, with the smallest change observed in the stiffness of the models. Finally, a set of equations were proposed for structural designers and engineers to calculate the seismic parameters based on the percentage of openings.