Theoretical and Experimental Study on Steel Plate Shear Wall with Unequal Columns

Steel plate shear walls with openings are highly interested because of their architectural aspects. A particular type of these systems is the steel plate shear wall with a door-shaped opening; the opening is continued from the base to top beam and surrounded by vertical boundary elements relatively weaker to main columns. Assuming the pure shear behavior for this system, each of the side panels can be considered a steel plate shear wall with unequal VBEs (vertical boundary elements). Behavior of this type of steel shear walls cannot be predicted by the common relations of steel shear walls; therefore, it has not been covered in technical literature until now. In this study, the behavior of steel plate shear wall with one strong and one weak column is theoretically and experimentally investigated. Theoretical relations to define the load-displacement curve and the inclination angle of tension field are proposed. An experimental model of a steel shear wall with unequal columns is fabricated and tested under cyclic quasi-static loading. Results of the experimental tests including load-displacement curve, plastic hinges location and inclination angle of tension field are compared with theoretical results