Bracing type pure aluminium stiffened shear panels: an experimental study

Shear panels represent nowadays one of the most suitable devices for protecting steel medium-high rise buildings subjected to both seismic and aeolian actions. In particular, the employment of stiffened plates made of low yield strength material provides an effective dissipative capability to the whole structure, which can be controlled as a design parameter by choosing appropriate panel dimensions and varying the stiffeners arrangement. The main purpose of this paper is to illustrate the principal results of an experimental campaign carried out on two bracing type pure aluminium shear panels (BTPASPs) tested under a diagonal cyclic force. Selected specimens are stiffened by means of welded aluminium ribs and are characterized by different aspect ratio values. A comparison between the obtained structural responses, in terms of experimental evidences, energy dissipation capability, hardening ratio, secant global stiffness and equivalent viscous damping ratio, is provided