Seismic Performance of Perforated Steel Plate Shear Walls Designed According to Canadian Seismic Provisions

Perforated Steel Plate Shear Wall (P-SPSW) is a relatively new lateral load resisting system used for resisting wind and earthquake loads. Current North American standards have recently adopted this new lateral load resisting system and proposed guidelines for the design of P-SPSWs. Research on P-SPSW is in the initial stage and to the best of this researcher’s knowledge, no seismic performance of code designed P-SPSWs has been studied yet. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the seismic performance of code designed P-SPSWs. Three multi-storey (4-, 8-, and 12-storey) P-SPSWs were designed according to the seismic provisions in NBCC 2010 and CSA/CAN S16-09. Nonlinear time history (NTH) analysis was conducted using detailed finite element (FE) modeling techniques. The finite element (FE) model developed was validated with two experiments results for quasi- static monotonic and cyclic analysis. Excellent correlation was found between detailed FE analysis and tests result. For seismic analysis a series of ten ground motion data were chosen which were compatible with Vancouver response spectrum. All the perforated shear walls exhibited excellent seismic behavior including high stiffness, stable ductility, and good energy dissipation during nonlinear time history (NTH) analysis. It was observed from the seismic analysis that proposed code equation provided a good estimation of the shear strength of the perforated plate when the plate was fully yielded. Thus, it can be concluded that recommended equation of CSA/CAN S16-09 is conservative to select the infill plate thickness of perforated steel plate shear wall. The N2 method has been used as an easy means of seismic demand evaluation compared to nonlinear time history analysis. The applicability of the N2 method for seismic demand assessment of P-SPSWs is investigated in this research. Results from N2 method was compared with the more accurate NTH analysis results. It was observed that the N2 method predicted seismic response parameters such as roof displacement reasonably accurately for 4-and 8-storey P-SPSW. For 12-storey P-SPSW N2 method slightly overestimated the roof displacement. The applicability of the modified strip model (MSM) was also evaluated in this research for unstiffened P-SPSW. After validating two experiments, the model was used for the three selected P-SPSWs. Monotonic pushover analysis results were compared with detailed FE analysis results. It was observed that the modified strip model efficiently captures the inelastic behavior of multi-storey unstiffened P-SPSWs with adequate accuracy. The ultimate strength was predicted well, and the initial stiffness was slightly underestimated