Capacity Design of Vertical Boundary

2005b), referred to herein as The Provisions, for steel plate shear walls (SPSWs) that are designed such that their web plates buckle in shear and develop diagonal tension fi eld ac-tion when resisting lateral loads. Energy dissipation and duc-tility during seismic events is principally achieved through yielding of the web plates along the diagonal tension fi eld. Consistent with capacity design principles, The Provisions require that the vertical and horizontal boundary elements (VBEs and HBEs) of SPSWs, as shown in Figure 1, be designed to remain essentially elastic with the exception of plastic hinging at the ends of horizontal boundary elements. The commentary of The Provisions provides some guidance on how to achieve this requirement. However, the methods described in the commentary, as shown in this paper, do not necessarily lead to VBEs that meet the requirement of es