Evaluation of composite shear walls behavior (parametric study)

Composite shear walls which are made of a layer of steel plate with a concrete cover in one or both sides of the steel plate, are counted as the third generation of the shear walls. Nowadays, composite shear walls are widely utilized in building new resisting structures as well as rehabilitating of the existing structures in earthquake-prone countries. Despite of its advantages, use of the composite shear walls is not yet prevalent as it demands more detailed appropriate investigation. Serving higher strength, flexibility and better energy absorption, while being more economical are the main advantages of this system which has paved its path to be used in high-rise buildings, structural retrofit and reservoir tanks. In this research, channel shear connectors are utilized to connect the concrete cover to the steel plate. As a key parameter, variation in the distance of shear connectors and their arrangement on the behavior of composite shear walls has been scrutinized. In addition, the shear stiffness, flexibility, out of plane displacement and the energy absorption of the structural system has been explored. For this purpose, several structural models with different shear distances and arrangements have been investigated. The obtained results reveal that with increase in shear connectors’ distance, the wall stiffness would reduce while its lateral displacement increases up to eighty percent While the out of plane displacement of the steel plate will reduce up to three times.