Investigating Design of Semi-Continuous Steel Shear Wall Connections to Concrete Frames by Numerical Method

Using steel shear walls is one way to increase the lateral load-carrying capacity of reinforced concrete moment-resisting frames and have been gaining the interest of researchers due to their excellent performance in earthquakes and ease of construction. In these shear walls, connection to the frame and force transfer between the wall and the frame are of particular interest. In this study, the connection type of these walls and transfer of forces between them and the frame via bolts were examined and controlled using the ABAQUS software. For this purpose, a two-story concrete frame equipped with steel shear walls was evaluated after verifying the numerical model. The frame was assessed under two connection conditions: the ideal state, in which the shear wall is fixed to the beam, and the realistic state, in which these shear walls are attached to the beam using connecting plates on the beams and bolts at the top and bottom of the beam. To design the bolts, first, the prestressing force needed to prevent sliding should be calculated, according to which the prestressing force and the bolts can be designed. Also, the simultaneous effect of tension and shear should be taken into account in the bolts design. .After designing the bolt diameter and prestressing force, the behaviors of the frame were compared in both cases. The numerical analysis revealed that the load-displacement behaviors in both cases were almost identical. Furthermore, the stress in the bolts in the second state was found to be lower than their strength, indicating that the bolt design method is safe and suitable for transferring forces between the shear wall and the reinforced concrete structural frame in floors. Also, by designing the bolt and its prestressing force according to the method of this paper, it is ensured that no slippage between the concrete and the connection plates occurs until the end of loading.