SKAB 4022

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND PRE PROJECT

SEMESTER SESSION 20202021-I

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Title
Behavior of 3.5m Height of Rectangular Steel Plate Sheer Wall (SPSW) with Various
Length of Infill Plate that is Connected to Vertical Boundary Elements

Prepared for:
Dr. Roslida Abd. Samat

Prepared by:
Nur Amalina Binti Ishak
A17KA0134
 TABLE OF CONTENT

1.0 Introduction 1
1.1 Research Background 1
1.2 Problem Statement 2
1.3 Research Objectives 3
1.4 Significant of The Research 4
2.0 Literature Review 5
2.1 Introduction 5
2.2 Lateral Load on Tall Buildings 5
2.3 Steel Plate Shear Wall s 6
2.4 Infill Plate of SPSWs 8
3.0 Methodology 11
3.1 Geometric Specifications of Models 11
3.2 Material Properties 11
3.3 Finite Element Model 12
4.0 Expected Findings 13
5.0 References 13
 Introduction

1.1 Research Background

In designing a building or structure, we have to consider two of these loads which are
axial loads and lateral loads. Lateral loads are live loads that are subjected parallel to
the ground; that is, they are horizontal forces acting on a structure. They are different to
axial loads for example which are vertical, downward forces. Generally, axial loads such as
gravity loads are the primary loading on a building. However, as the height of building
increases, it must have adequate strength to resist lateral loads imposed by winds and moderate
earthquakes. As the number of storey increases and the building becomes taller, the additional
stiffness is one of the major requirements to control the deflection that dictates the design,
rather than the strength of the members itself [6]. Structures and buildings should be designed
carefully with likely lateral loads in mind. Thus, it is desirable to use an appropriate structural
system to resist the lateral loads, in addition to axial loads that are applied to the buildings.

In structural engineering, shear wall is one of a vertical structural system that is

designed to resist lateral loads, typically wind and seismic loads. They are usually made of
steel, concrete, brick and wood. These walls generally start at foundation level and are
continuous throughout the building height with thickness of as low as 150mm or as high as
400mm in high rise buildings [5]. Most RC buildings with shear walls also has columns that
primarily carry axial loads while shear walls are designed to carry lateral loads. Shear walls
provide large strength and stiffness to buildings in the direction of their orientation, which
significantly reduces lateral sway of the building and thereby reduces damage to structure and
its contents.

Efficiency of a shear wall is purely depending upon its rigidity or its stiffness. The
effifciency of a solid shear wall is more than a shear wall with openings. But sometimes it is
not possible to construct a shear wall without openings such as openings for doors and
windows. The main purpose of constructing these walls is to resist lateral loads, but they are
also able to resist vertical load, uplift forces and enhance the stability of the structure. Based
on the type of material used, shear walls are commonly classified into following types;

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reinforced concrete shear wall, concrete block shear wall, steel shear wall, plywood shear wall
and mid-ply shear wall.

1.2 Problem Statement

In the recent decades, Steel Plate Shear Wall (SPSW) has been used in a number of
buildings in Japan and North America, that are in highly seismic areas as it is one of the most
common lateral-resisting structural systems [1]. In earlier days, the design procedures of SPSW
tended to be very conservative and conventional because it was treated like vertically oriented
plate girders. Although the advantages of SPSW over the other structural systems such as
moment resisting frames and braces frames are somehow well-known, the thorough interaction
of the system is not comprehensively investigated.

Therefore, the present study aims at investigating the influence of different length of
infill plate that is connected to vertical boundary elements in rectangular SPSW to the moment
and axial force develops using finite element method. For this purpose, different 3D finite
element model of 3.5m height rectangular SPSWs with various span lengths of infill steel plates
are developed.

SPSW are an efficient but greatly underutilized building lateral loads resisting system.
The system consists of a boundary frame with slender infill plates that are welded or bolted
inside the boundary frame, forming a diaphragm. A typical SPSW such as the one shown in
Figure 1 consists of infill plates surrounded by columns, called vertical boundary elements
(VBEs), on each side, and beams, called horizontal boundary elements (HBEs), above and
below. These infill plates are allowed to buckle in shear and subsequently form diagonal
tension fields when resisting lateral loads. Energy dissipation of SPSW during seismic events
is principally achieved through yielding of the panels along the diagonal tension fields [2].

There are numerous experimental, numerical, and analytical studies and research on
SPSW which confirm the wall has a good seismic performance. It is also possible to pre-
fabricate the wall as the construction of SPSW is similar to the steel structures. Moreover,
SPSWs have advantages of high initial lateral stiffness, stable hysteresis behaviour and

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good energy dissipation. Therefore, the implementation of SPSW is efficient, fast and easy in
the real structures.

Infill Plate

Figure 1.0 Typical steel plate shear wall [2]

1.3 Research Objectives

Generally, the aim of this study is to analyse the influence of variation of infill plate’s length
that is connected to vertical boundary elements in rectangular Steel Plate Sheer Wall (SPSW)
to the moment and axial force develops. Specifically, the objectives of this study are:
1. To develop detailed 3D finite element models of the 3.5m height steel plate sheer wall
using Abaqus Software.
2. To study the moment and axial forces develops from the steel plate sheer wall with
3.5m height and varies length of infill plate that is connected to vertical boundary
elements.
3. To identify and compare the overall reduction of the moment and axial forces develops
for each length of infill plate that is connected to vertical boundary elements in 3.5m
height rectangular SPSW.

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1.4 Significant of the Research

The importance of this study is to know how much the impact of different length of
infill plate that is connected to vertical boundary elements in 3.5m height rectangular SPSW
and the moment and axial force develops. Designers pioneering the use of SPSWs did not
have much experience nor existing data to rely upon. Thus, this research has been conducted
to not only help determine the behaviour, response and performance of rectangular SPSWs
with different length of infill plate connected to vertical boundary elements, but also as a means
to help advance analysis and design methodologies for the engineering community. An
understanding of the interaction of different length of infill plate that is connected to vertical
boundary elements in 3.5m height rectangular SPSW with the moment and axial force develops
is necessary to determine the seismic performance of structures for design basis and beyond
design basis events that will help with the improvement of high-rise building construction in
Malaysia.

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 Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

Tall buildings have been increasing in number for these past decades. This is due to the
attractiveness of the high-rise building itself compared to low-to-medium-rise buildings in
metropolises that have limited developable land resources. In ordinary low-to-medium-rise
buildings and structures, the design choices are generally driven by the strength properties of
the materials used and the deformability issues are usually checked in order to avoid significant
damages on non-structural elements such as suspended ceilings and cladding systems [17].
Contrariwise, the need to minimize lateral displacements has significantly influence the
development and design of high-rise buildings, because of the crucial importance of lateral
actions especially on seismic hazard zones [18]. To accomplish this purpose, deflection limits
can be found in various international design codes, which are aimed at increasing the
serviceability properties of the structure as well as the occupant comfort.

2.2 Lateral Load on Tall Buildings

Lateral loadings on high-rises mainly refer to seismic, for example earthquakes and
wind loadings. From the structural engineering point-of-view, wind loading generally becomes
dominant with the increased building height as shown in Figure 2.0. As a result, many cities
have strengthened their seismic defends levels to reduce potential loss of life and property
during seismic hazard. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the lateral force resistance when
planning and designing a high-rise building as a seismic fortification.

Figure 2.0 Wind loading at each story along the weak axis of a building

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 Wind loading is a governing factor in the structural design of lateral force resistance for
high-rise buildings in Malaysia. The feasibility of the proposed lateral force resisting system is
checked using the wind loading defined in Malaysian Standard. When an enclosed building has
the height of more than 100 m, the total along-wind force on the enclosed building must
consider the dynamic effect according to the Code of Practice on Wind Loading for Building
Structure. The calculation method of wind loading is detailed in, MS 1553:2002.

Under the action of wind loads, a high-rise building is generally considered to be

composed of two web panels (parallel to the wind load) primary resisting bending action and
two flange panels (orthogonal to the wind load) enduring shear forces [15]. Since the in-plane
stiffness of the floor slabs is generally intended to be sufficiently high to restrict any tendency
for the panels to deform out-of-plane, it is reasonably assumed that the out-of-plane actions are
irrelevant compared to the primary in-plane actions and can be neglected in the design process
[15].

2.3 Steel Plate Shear Walls

Since 1970, steel shear wall systems were one of the important choices among various
alternatives for resisting lateral loads [16]. Steel shear wall is widely used in North America
and Japan, where it is developed by several form to resist all type of lateral load in different
area as shown in Figure 3.0. Unstiffened thin steel plate shear walls, commonly known as steel
plate shear walls (SPSWs), are used extensively in modern country as a substitute to the
conventional lateral systems such as braced frames and reinforced concrete (RC) shear walls.
SPSWs have shown reliability and effectiveness, especially in resisting wind and earthquake
loading on high rise buildings.

Figure 3.0 SPSWs that are commonly used in U.S.A and Japan
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 A typical steel plate shear wall (SPSW) consists of an unstiffened thin infill plate
connected to vertical and horizontal boundary frame members, i.e., columns and beams,
respectively. The lateral load is transferred through the infill plate by the principal tension
stresses. The infill plate is allowed to buckle in shear and consequently forms a diagonal tension
field during an earthquake, as shown in Figure 4.0 [12].

Lateral Load

Figure 4.0 Diagonal tension field/strip of a typical SPSW

Steel shear wall have many specifications include low cost, small thickness, lightweight
and very good lateral load resisting system, suitable for its usage in seismic zones. For steel
infill panels, one process applies to heavily stiffened steel plate shear walls to secure that the
wall panel check its full plastic strength before to be exposed on out of plane buckling [10].
Depending on the design philosophy, the steel plate panels are either stiffened or unstiffened.
The structural frame which are the VBEs and HBEs may use either simple or moment resisting
connections between beams and columns and the steel panel is either bolted or welded to these
boundary elements (usually through a fish plate) [10].

Many studies shown that the implementation of the steel plate shear walls improves
the ductility, stiffness and ultimate strength of the structure especially tall buildings, for which
the interconnection of the steel infill plate with boundary elements, HBEs and VBEs has a
significant role on its effectiveness. The typical connection of the infill shear plates to the

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boundary members has a high-level fixity despite the general convenient construction
procedures [13].

Other than that, placement of steel plate shear walls (SPSW) in the building cores such
as around the elevators and stairs which act as a significant necessity in high-rise building has
triggered the creation of door-type openings in these systems. Because of large dimensions of
door openings in the system, the energy dissipation capacity drops significantly and thus, the
probability of out-of-plane buckling under lateral load increases [12]. As a solution,
introducing stiffeners around the opening increases the amount of dissipated energy that will
help to improve the performance of the SPSW system. However, construction of those fully-
stiffened SPSWs in which the vertical and horizontal stiffeners continue to boundary elements,
as shown in Figure 5.0, is significantly costly [12]. The reasonings are, it requires more steel,
more cutting and welding for connections, which lead to the necessity of further material, labor,
and quality control.

Figure 5.0 Fully-stiffened SPSW with door opening [12]

2.4 Infill Plate of SPSWs

One of the major elements in Steel Plate Shear Walls (SPSWs) is the Steel plate.
Preferably, this plate is chosen of steel with low yield point to encourage yielding of steel plate
before the frame members. Various international codes recommend the design of SPSWs
assuming the entire lateral load to be resisted by the infill plates. Such a design procedure
results in significant overstrength leading to uneconomical and inefficient use of materials [11].

There are various parameters that influence the behavior such as yielding strength and
yield displacement of the SPSWs. The infill steel plate thickness is the most influential
parameter on the behavior of the steel plate shear walls as shown in Tornado diagram in Figure

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6.0 and Figure 7.0. For example, increasing the infill plate thickness from 1.5mm to 15.87mm
leads to an increase in the yielding strength by 270%. It also reduces the lateral yielding
displacement by 50% [10]. Furthermore, the infill material grade had also noticeable influence
on the behavior of the steel shear wall system. For instance, the model with the maximum infill
plate material grade had 50% higher yielding displacement with reference to the model with
minimum infill material grade.

Figure 6.0 Tornado diagram of yielding strength

Figure 7.0 Tornado diagram of yield displacement [10]

Other factors which related to infill plate that will influence the behaviors of infill plates
are the opening of the steel plate, as well as the interconnection of the infill plate to the columns
and beams. If the circular opening diameter increases by 50%, the ultimate strength, ductility,
energy absorption and effective stiffness are decreased by 11.52%, 14.92%, 17.07% and 25%,
respectively. The reasons behind this are the opening inside of the infill plate prevents the
tensile field action to be fully developed resulting in poor structural load resisting capacity.
Furthermore, the interconnection of the infill plate to the VBEs affects the performance of steel
plate shear wall because the column-only connected infill plate models do not show a suitable

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performance, and cause issues in the tension field action development. As for the
interconnection of the infill plate to the HBEs which is the beams, as compared to
interconnection with columns, has a major contribution in formation of the tension field action
that will lead to significant reduce of the steel plate shear wall post-buckling strength
development, if appropriate interconnection is not considered [13].

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 Methodology

3.1 Geometric Specifications of Models

Twelve models in this study are considered. Each model consists of various span length
which an infill plate is placed in the middle span as shown in Figure 8.0. Span length are
assumed to be 3m, 4m, 5m, 6m, 7m and 8m. The SPSW height is presumed to be 3.5m, and
two different thickness of the infill plate will be used for each of the length which are 2.5mm
and 5mm. Beams are connected to columns through reduced beam section (RBS) moment
connection to ensure the inelastic action at HBEs end away from the face of VBEs. The column
bases are completely restrained in 3 directions and in order to consider floor effect, the top of
the beams will also be restrained perpendicular to the frame plane. The load is applied through
displacement at top of columns. The infill plate is full connected to the beams (HBEs) and the
columns (VBEs) for all models.

Figure 8.0 Schematic View of Proposed Models

3.2 Material Properties

Two different steels are considered for the infill plate and the frame members and the
mechanical properties of these steel materials are adopted from ASTM A370-05 (2005), as
shown in Table 1.0 below. Multilinear elastic-plastic behaviour for materials is assumed a for
both materials (with Elastic modulus, E = 200 GPa and Poisson’s ratio, ν=0.3). The yield
strength of the infill plate (250 MPa) is lower than that of frame members (345 MPa) to let the

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yielding of the infill plate occurs first before frame members and helps in reducing the forces
applied by infill plate on VBEs and HBEs.

Table 1.0 Mechanical Properties of Steel Materials used for SPSW

Steel Yield Stress Ultimate Yield Hardening Ultimate Rupture
Material (MPa) Stress (MPa) Strain (%) Strain (%) Strain (%) strain (%)
Infill Plate 280 500 0.14 0.3 21.6 27
Frame
400 450 0.19 2.7 13.2 15.4
members

3.2 Finite Element Model

According to Karlsson and Sorensen, 2013, the SPSWs are modeled by finite elements
and are subjected to a non-linear static analysis procedure using software package ABAQUS.
All frame members and infill plate are modeled using a four node doubly curved general-
purpose conventional shell element with reduced integration and hourglass control, dubbed the
S4R element in ABAQUS. The infill plate is assumed connected directly to the frame members.
All connections are assumed rigid, including the beam-column connections and infill plate
connections to frame members. To model the fixed supports at column bases, the bottom nodes
of both columns are fully restrained. Moreover, beam webs are restrained against out-of-plane
movements due to the presence of the concrete slab at the floors. In addition, lateral load is
applied as lateral displacement to the exterior face of the beam-column connections and is
gradually increased from zero to a drift ratio of ~2.5% according to ASCE 7-16 (2016).

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 Expected Findings
The structural characteristics of the models which are ultimate capacity and axial forces and
moment develops in VBEs are compared and discussed. The value of Axial forces and Moment
are expected to be reduced when the length of infill plate that are connected to VBEs of 3.5m
rectangular SPSW are less.

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