International Journal of Steel Structures 17(3): 1233-1248 (2017)

DOI 10.1007/s13296-017-9029-2
ISSN 1598-2351 (Print)
ISSN 2093-6311 (Online)

www.springer.com/journal/13296

Shear Resistance of Buckling-restrained Steel Plate Shear Walls

Mu-Wang Wei1,*, J. Y. Richard Liew3,4, and Xue-Yi Fu2
1
School of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China, 510006
2
Department of Civil and Environment Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, China, 518055
3
Department of Civil and Environment Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117576
4
College of Civil Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, 211816

Abstract

The buckling-restrained steel plate shear walls (SPSWs), which consist of a steel plate sandwiched in between by two
reinforced concrete (RC) cover plates, are known to be a robust and efficient lateral load-resisting system. Since the initial
imperfection between the RC plates and the inner plate which is mainly caused by the fabrication and construction errors, the
high-order buckling deformation generally forms in the compression zone of inner steel plate. Therefore, a modified method
based on the high-order buckling analysis on the inner panel is developed to predict the shear resistance of buckling-restrained
SPSWs in the present study. Furthermore, the available experimental data from literature is employed to establish the validation
of the modified method, and the shear resistance predicted by the proposed method reasonably agrees with the test results. In
addition, the effect of the flexural stiffness of vertical boundary elements (VBEs) is also investigated. The minimum moment
of inertia of VBEs is then proposed so that the inner steel plate fairly uniformly forms the tension field. Moreover, the push-
over analysis is conducted using nonlinear finite element (FE) method to establish the validation of the proposed VBEs flexural
stiffness. The FE results are then compared with that predicted by the proposed method and a reasonable agreement is generally
achieved between them.

Keywords: buckling-restrained, flexural stiffness, high-order buckling, shear resistance, steel plate shear wall

1. Introduction reinforced concrete (RC) cover plates, equal angle steels,

For the past few decades, the steel plate shear walls
(SPSWs) as a new lateral load-resisting system have been
widely researched and applied to high-rise buildings
exhibiting adequate ductility, high initial stiffness, and
good energy absorption capacity (Kuhn et al., 1952;
Takahashi et al., 1973; Thorbun et al., 1983; Timler and
Kulak, 1983; Tromposch and Kulak, 1987; Caccese et al.,
1993; Driver, 1997; Astaneh-Asl, 2001a; Park et al. 2007).
However, it is also acknowledged that the infill steel plate
generally is easy to buckle with loud noise at early stage
of loading, which inherently results in a considerable loss
of energy dissipation performance. In order to overcome
the challenge, Astaneh-Asl (2001b) and Zhao and
Astaneh-Asl (2004, 2007) proposed an innovational
buckling-restrained SPSW as shown in Fig. 1. In
generally, it is comprised of vertical boundary elements
(VBEs), horizontal boundary elements (HBEs), pre-cast
Received November 9, 2016; accepted March 8, 2017;
published online September 30, 2017
© KSSC and Springer 2017
*Corresponding author
E-mail: weimuwang@foxmail.com
inner thin steel plate, and bolts. The inner thin steel plate
is attached to the surrounding boundary elements by bolts
or welding. Two pre-cast RC cover plates are employed
to sandwich the inner steel plate by bolts. It is worth
noting that an appropriate gap is left by design between
the RC cover plates and the main frame. Hence, the RC
cover plates do not participate in resisting the horizontal
and vertical load from main frame. They only provide an
out-of-plane constraint to prevent the inner steel plate
from buckling. Furthermore, the experimental study
(Zhao and Astaneh-Asl 2004, 2007) has demonstrated
that the new shear wall system has better performance on
ductility and energy dissipation capacity than the
traditional composite shear wall which does not have any
gap between the RC wall and the boundary elements.
Besides the said properties, there also are some
advantages of using the shear wall to resist lateral loads:
(1) Since the yield stress of inner steel plate is designed
to be lower than that of main frame, the steel plate is
allowed to develop yield zone across the entire area,
whereas the main frame remains in elastic phase. Thus,
the inner steel plate is considered as a “fuse” to prevent
the main frame from the potential damage caused by
wind or earthquake loads.
1234 Mu-Wang Wei et al. / International Journal of Steel Structures, 17(3), 1233-1248, 2017
Figure 1. Schematic drawing of buckling-restrained steel plate shear wall.
(2) The shear wall system can be constructed with field-
bolted elements that significantly improve buildability
and substantially reduce the cost of construction. Although
the high-order buckling deformation generally develops
in the inner panel and the RC cover panels slightly crack
after a severe earthquake, it would be much easier and
faster to repair or replace the damaged members. As a
result, the proposed shear wall works more efficiently
than the traditional shear wall systems.
(3) In addition to the out-of-plane restraint to prevent
the inner steel plate from buckling, the RC cover panels
also provide sound and fire insulation to the steel plate.
It is well known that there generally is initial
imperfection between the inner steel plate and the RC
cover plates mainly caused by the initially buckled
deformation and the construction error after installation.
Owing to the said initial gaps, a high-order buckling
deformation commonly develops in the inner steel plate.
This has been experimentally validated by the previous
tests (Gao, 2007; Guo et al., 2009). Furthermore, the high-
order buckling resistance of compression zone, which
strongly depends on the magnitude of the initial gaps,
significantly affects the shear strength of the inner panel.
After buckling, the load carrying mechanism of the inner
steel plate changes from in-plane shear to the inclined
tension field. Then, the tension field force inherently
exerts an additional reaction on the VBEs. Therefore, the
VBEs should provide sufficient anchorage for bounding
the inner steel plate so that the steel plate may fairly
uniformly develop tension field. For this consideration,
Steel Design Guide 20 (2007) and AISC 341-10 (2010)
recommend that the unstiffened SPSWs in terms of the
VBEs shall have a moment of inertia about an axis taken
perpendicular to the plane of the web not less than
0.00307th4/L, where t, h, and L are the thickness, height,
and width of the steel plate respectively. Nevertheless, the
effect of the high-order buckling deformation in the
compression zone is not taken into the mentioned AISC
method account. Hence, the stiffness requirement for the
VBEs of unstiffened SPSWs given in AISC 341-10
(2010) is not likely applicable for the buckling-restrained
SPSWs. In addition, although a method is also recommended
by AISC 341-10 (2010) to predict the shear resistance of
the inner steel plate in the composite SPSWs, the effect of
 Shear Resistance of Buckling-restrained Steel Plate Shear Walls 1235

Figure 2. A strip from compression zone in the wall for high-order buckling analysis.

the initial imperfection is ignored and the inner panel is strip may be determined by
assumed to be in-plane shear without buckling in the
AISC method. ∂ 4ω ∂ 4ω ∂ 4ω 1 ∂ 2ω
+2 + = N x (1)
Therefore, for the buckling-restrained SPSWs, this ∂x 4 ∂x 2 ∂y 2 ∂y 4 Ds ∂x 2
paper presents a modified method to determine its minimum
moment of inertia of VBEs for forming full tension field where, Nx is denoted as the compressive force per unit
in the inner steel plate. Moreover, a new method based on height applied at the “b” side; ω is the out-of-plane
the high-order buckling analysis is also developed to deflection and its equation is assumed to be
predict the shear resistance of the inner steel plate. In
∞ ∞ mπx nπy
addition, the push-over analysis is performed using
nonlinear finite element (FE) method to establish the
ω= ∑ ∑ a mn sin
m= n= 1 1 a
sin
b
(2)
validation of the proposed methods. Meanwhile, an
extensive parametric study is also carried out to investigate where, m and n are the number of buckling half-
the effect of the initial imperfection and the flexural wavelength in “a” and “b” direction respectively; Ds is
stiffness of VBEs on the shear resistance of buckling- the out-of-plane flexural rigidity of strip determined by
restrained SPSWs.
Es ts 3
Ds = (3)
2. High-order Buckling Analysis 12(1 − ν s2 )

It has been reported (Wei et al., 2016, 2017) that the where, Es is the elastic modulus of steel plate; ts is the
initial imperfection strongly limits the development of inner panel thickness and νs is the Poisson's ratio of steel
buckling mode in the inner panel. Furthermore, the effect plate. Using the principle of energy conservation, the
may propagate into the shear resistance of the inner plate. compressive force Nx can be obtained by solving Eq. (1)
Therefore, in this section, the high-order buckling as
analysis is performed to capture the buckling resistance of
the compression zone in the inner steel plate. Some 2 2
∞ ∞
2 ⎛ m n2 ⎞
assumptions are taken as follows: π 2 a 2 D s ∑ ∑ a mn ⎜ 2 + ⎟
m =1 n =1 ⎝a b2 ⎠
(1) The out-to-plane constraint stiffness provided by the Nx = ∞ ∞
RC panels is assumed to be sufficient so that the global
buckling may be avoided, thereby developing the high- ∑ ∑ m 2 amn2
m =1 n =1
(4)
order buckling deformation in the inner plate.
(2) The distribution of initial gaps between the RC where, the buckling mode in “b” direction is assumed to
plate and inner panel is considered to be uniform and be the first-order mode, and then the value of n can be
continuous. considered as one. Thus, the Eq. (4) may be simplified
(2) The effect of the bolt holes in the steel plate is and rewritten as
ignored. 2
A free body of a strip with a width of a and a height of π 2 Ds ⎛ 1 a2 ⎞
Nx = ⎜ m + ⎟ (5)
b in the compression zone is shown in Fig. 2. According a2 ⎝ m b2 ⎠
to the theory of plate stability (Timoshenko 1936), the
static equilibrium differential equation of the free body of where, a comparison made with the Euler equation for a
1236 Mu-Wang Wei et al. / International Journal of Steel Structures, 17(3), 1233-1248, 2017

Figure 3. Equilibrium diagram of the buckling steel plate.

compressive member shows that the first factor in Eq. (5), (7a) and (7b) in series and neglecting the third and higher
π 2 Ds order terms gives
, may be considered as the Euler load of a strip
a2 8γ 2
with length a. The second factor essentially means the χ= (8)
2
lw
⎛ 1 a2 ⎞
buckling resistance of plate is ⎜ m + ⎟ times than where,γ is considered as the magnitude of gap, s, that
⎝ m b2 ⎠ 2 should be not more than h/1000 given in GB 50205-2001
1 a
the Euler load of a strip. Ignoring the item, , leads (2001), where h is the inter-storey height. Based on the
to m b2 mechanical equilibrium of one buckling half-wave shown
in Fig. 3, the high-order buckling resistance may be
π 2 Ds expressed in terms of the out-of-plane moment resistance
Nx = (6)
(a / m )2 of the strip plate as:

where, a/m may be treated as the buckling half- 2 2M p 1

Nx = (9)
wavelength, lw, as shown in Fig. 3. blw εs
In addition, it has been recognized that the initial gaps
significantly affect the development of buckling mode of where, εs is treated as the nominal longitude strain of
the inner panel (Wei et al., 2016, 2017). If the initial inner panel, χ/lw; Mp is the out-of-plane plastic moment of
imperfection is neglected, the load resisting mechanism the strip panel defined by
of inner panel is in-plane shear without any buckled
deformation. However, as the gaps generally exist in the bt s 2
Mp = f py (10)
said test specimens, its magnitude may greatly limit the 4
development of buckling responses from low-order to
high-order as shown in Fig. 4. It can be found that the where fpy is the yield stress of the steel plate. From Eq.(6)
buckling is firstly triggered in a low-order mode which and (9), the bucking half-wavelength, lw, can be
inherently has a longer wavelength. Since the wavelength determined by
is limited by the magnitude of the initial gaps between the
inner steel plate and RC panels, the buckling response 2π Ds s
lw = (11)
will propagate to the high-order mode with the increasing ts f py
compressive load, which is characterized by the shorter
wavelength. As the compressive load further increases, Substituting of Eq. (11) into Eq. (6) gives
the wavelength decreases with the increasing buckling
wave rotation, φ, shown in Fig. 3. As a result, the bending t s2 f py
Nx = (12)
moment of the strip plate increases and the plastic hinges 4s
form at the wave crests and troughs. The transversal and
longitudinal displacement, γ and χ, can be written in It also implies that the buckling resistance of the strip
terms of the buckling wave rotation, φ, as: from the inner plate is greatly related with the initial
imperfection, s. The effect of the initial imperfection on
γ = lw / 4sin ϕ (7a) the behavior of the buckling-restrained SPSWs system
χ = l w (1 − cos ϕ )
will be further elaborated using numerical simulation
(7b)
hereinafter.
where, lw is the buckling half-wavelength. Expanding Eq.
 Shear Resistance of Buckling-restrained Steel Plate Shear Walls
Figure 4. Buckling mode of inner steel plate.
3. The Flexural Stiffness of VBEs
The fact has been early realized by Wagner (1931a, b,
c) and Thorburn el at. (1983) that the extent to which a
tension field forms in the unstiffened SPSWs is significantly
influenced by the rigidity of the boundary elements. A
fully developed tension field will result only if the VBEs
and HBEs bounding the inner panel have an extremely
large bending stiffness. As the VBEs are taken on greater
flexibility, they will bend into the inner panel as a result
of the horizontal components of the inclined tension
forces. This generally results in a redistribution of the
inner plate forces and a loss of the lateral stiffness of the
panel. For this consideration, Wagner (1931b) is the first
to introduce the flexibility parameter, ωh, to limit the
flexibility stiffness of VBEs. And then, the concept is
adopted by Canadian design code S16-01 (2001) and
American design code ANSI/AISC 341-10 (2010). It is
recommended that the flexibility parameter, ωh, for the
unstiffened SPSWs should be less than 2.5 so that the
tension field may fairly uniformly develop in the inner
steel plate. The parameter, ωh, is defined as
t s 14
ω h = h sin α ( ) (13)
2Ic L
where Ic is the moment of inertia of a VBE taken
perpendicular to the direction of the web plate line; α is
the inclination angle of the tension field and the VBEs,
which is permitted to be 40 degrees or determined by
ts L
1+
2 Ac
tan 4 α = (14)
1 h3
1 + ts h( + )
Ab 360 I c L
where Ac and Ab are the cross-sectional area of the VBEs
and HBEs, respectively.
In addition, based on the plastic collapse mechanisms
for the unstiffened SPSWs subject to lateral loads
proposed by Bermanel and Bruneau (2003, 2008), the
distributed loads from steel plate yielding exerted on the
VBEs is given as
ω pyx = f py t s sin 2 α (15a)
ω pyy = f py t s sin α cos α (15b)
1237
where ωpyx and ωpyy are denoted as the horizontal and
vertical components of tension field force applied to the
VBEs, respectively, as shown in Fig. 5. However, for the
buckling-restrained SPSWs, the effect of compression
zone where the high-order buckling deformation is
developed is significant and should be not ignored. Thus,
the horizontal and vertical components of the distributed
force from the high-order buckling resistance, ωpbx and
ωpby, applied to the VBEs may be obtained similarly, as
shown in Fig. 5.
ω pbx = N x cos 2 α (16a)
ω pby = N x sin α cos α (16b)
As the initial gaps between the RC cover plates and the
inner panel in the buckling-restrained SPSWs, the main
load resisting mechanism of the steel plate is altered to
the superposition of the tension field and the compression
zone with high-order buckling deformation, which is
called “panel action”. In order to investigate the effect of
the said panel action on the flexural stiffness of VBEs, the
flexibility parameter is further converted to the inward
bending deflection at the middle of VBEs. According to
the structural analysis (Hibbeler 2012) shown in Fig. 6,
the middle deflection of VBEs of the unstiffened SPSWs,
where the effect of the compression force in the
orthogonal direction of tension field is small and can be
ignored, is determined by
ω pyx h 2
δV = (17)
384 EI c
Substituting of Eq. (13) into Eq. (17) leads to the
corresponding bending deflection requirement at the
middle of VBEs in terms of the yield strength of tension
field, fpy
f py L
δ V ≤ δ max = 0.20345 (18)
Eh sin 2 α
2
In addition, for the buckling-restrained SPSWs, the
bending deflection at the middle of VBEs is
(ω pyx − ω pbx ) h 2
δV = (19)
384 EI c
1238 Mu-Wang Wei et al. / International Journal of Steel Structures, 17(3), 1233-1248, 2017

Figure 5. Forces from panel action applied to a VBE.

Figure 6. Structural analysis on the VBEs.

To develop full tension field after buckling, the valve of
δV should be not more than δmax determined by Eq. (18).
Thus, the stiffness requirement for the VBEs of buckling-
restrained SPSWs may be obtained as
(ω pyx − ω pbx ) h 4 sin 2 α
I c ≥ 0.0128
f py L
4. Shear Resistance of Inner Panel
4.1. AISC method
A method has been proposed by AISC 341-10 (2010)
and steel design guide 20 (2007) to determine the shear
resistance of the composite steel plate shear walls (C-
SPSWs), which is generally considered to be also applicable
for the buckling-restrained SPSWs. It is attributed to that
the C-SPSWs are able to develop the full shear yielding
strength of the steel plate due to the transverse restraint
provided by concrete portions of the wall. In addition to
stiffening the steel plate, the concrete portion of the wall
can provide supplementary shear strength. Furthermore,
(20)
AISC 341-10 (2010) does not permit using the concrete
strength in determining the shear strength. Only the inner
steel plate strength is considered. Thus, the method
proposed by the American code (AISC 341-10 2010;
Steel design guide 20 2007) for C-SPSWs may be
adapted to determine the shear resistance of buckling-
restrained SPSW, as follows:
V AISC = 0.6 f py t s L (21)
 Shear Resistance of Buckling-restrained Steel Plate Shear Walls 1239

Figure 7. Panel action divided into three zone.

Figure 8. Mechanical equilibrium of Zone 1.

Figure 9. Mechanical equilibrium of Zone 2.

4.2. Modified method
In this section, the second moment of area of VBEs is
assumed to satisfy the proposed requirement as shown in
Eq. (18) so that the tension field may fully develop after
buckling. Moreover, the plastic collapse mechanism for
the unstiffened SPSWs proposed by Berman and Bruneau
(2003, 2008) is used to develop equations for the shear
resistance of the steel plate in the buckling-restrained
SPSWs. In addition to the tension field, the contribution
of the compression zone where the high-order buckling
deformation generally forms is also taken into the shear
resistance account.
Consider Fig. 7, which shows a single storey buckling-
restrained SPSW in a frame with pin-ended beams. The
tension field is divided into three zones. The zone 1 free
body diagram is schematically shown in Fig. 8.
Summation of moments about Point C leads to
Vt1h = Rby L (22)
where Vt1is the shear resistance of Zone 1; Rby is the
vertical support reaction at Point B. Then from the free
body diagram of HBE alone shown in Fig. 8, taking
moments about Point D gives
h sin α
∫0
f py t s ede = Rby L (23)
where e is the distance from Point D to the strip de. Thus,
1240 Mu-Wang Wei et al. / International Journal of Steel Structures, 17(3), 1233-1248, 2017

1
Vt 3 = f py t s h sin 2 α (28)
2
By combining Eq. (24), Eq. (27) and Eq. (28), the
contribution of tension field in the inner plate to the shear
resistance can be expressed as

Vt = f py t s L sin α cos α (29)

In the same way, the shear resistance carried by the

compression zone can be obtained as
Figure 10. Mechanical equilibrium of Zone 3.
Vc = N x L sin α cos α (30)
the shear resistance due to the force in Zone 1 can be
expressed as Therefore, from the Eq. (29) and Eq. (30), the shear
resistance of the inner plate in the buckling-restrained
1 SPSWs where the effect of Passion’s ratio is taken into
Vt1 = f py ts h sin 2 α (24)
2 account can be determined by

The free body diagram of Zone 2 is shown in Fig. 9. By V = ( f py t s − ν s f py t s + N x ) L sin α cos α (31)
taking moments about Point C again, an equilibrium
equation may be obtained where Nx can be determined by Eq. (12). It is noted that
the value of Nx should not more than fpyts. If Nx≥fpyts, the
L cos α value of Nx should be treated as fpyts.
Vt 2 h = Rby L − ∫ ( e − h sin α ) f py t s de (25)
h sin α

5. Summary of Test Work

where Vt2 is the shear resistance of Zone 2 in the tension
field. Then, taking moments about Point D in the free
body of the HBE, shown in Fig. 10, gives
L cos α
Rby L = ∫h sin α
f py t s ede
Substituting Eq. (26) into Eq. (25) leads to
Vt 2 = f py t s sin α ( L cos α − h sin α )
Finally, for the Zone 3 shown in Fig. 10, summation of
moments about Point C gives the contribution to the shear
resistance from Zone 3 which can be written as
One one-third scaled single storey buckling-restrained
SPSW specimen with simple beam-to-column connections
has been tested by Gao (2007). The characteristics of test
specimens and the test results are summarized in Table 1.
(26)
The setup is schematically shown in Fig. 11. The bottom
of specimens is mounted on the foundation floor at the
laboratory using two M80 grade 8.8 bolts and horizontally
supported at ends by two jacks to prevent the specimens
(27) from slipping along the strong floor. Lateral load is
applied at the top of specimens by a servo controlled
hydraulic actuator mounted between the specimen and a
reaction wall. A 1,000 kN hydraulic actuator is employed
to apply lateral quasi-static cyclic loads. While the inner

Table 1. Details of test specimens

Infill steel plate Shear yield strength
Initial
Yield gap Test V − V yt VyA − Vyt
Researchers Specimens Thickness Length Height Predictions yp AISC
stress (s, mm) results V yt Vyt
(ts, mm) (L, mm) (h, mm) (V , kN) (VyA, kN)
(fpy, Mpa) (Vyt, kN) yp
(%) (%)
Gao CW4 2 1800 900 287 1.4 550 546 -0.7 620 12.7
BR-SPW
Guo 2.8 1100 1100 324 2 530 524 -1.1 599 13
(II)-400
BR-SPW
2.2 1100 1100 383 2 450 451 0.2 556 23.6
(II)-500
 Shear Resistance of Buckling-restrained Steel Plate Shear Walls 1241

Figure 11. Predictions of test results by Gao [13].

Figure 12. Predictions of test results by Guo [14].

steel plate fractured in the tension field at corners the to the strong floor using eight M70 bolts. An actuator
specimens were considered as a failure. In addition, between the specimen and the reaction wall was
another similar test was also conducted by Guo et al. employed to provide horizontal quasi-static loads at the
(2009), as shown in Fg. 12. The specimens were mounted top beam. The test was terminated while the steel plate
1242 Mu-Wang Wei et al. / International Journal of Steel Structures, 17(3), 1233-1248, 2017
Figure 13. Configuration of FE model.
fractured at corners. The properties of the test specimen
and test results are shown in Table 1.
To establish the validation of the proposed method for
determining the shear resistance of the inner steel plate in
the buckling-restrained SPSWs with simple beam-to-
column connections, a comparison is made with the
mentioned test results shown in Table 1. It can be clearly
found that the proposed method reasonably predicts the
shear resistance of buckling-restrained SPSW with single
beam-to-column connections and that are about 5% below
the experimentally obtained value. However, the shear
resistance predicted by the AISC method generally is
more than test result with approximately 13-24% error.
Hence, it is deemed that the proposed modified method is
more reasonable for determining the shear resistance of
buckling-restrained SPSWs.
6 Finite Element Modeling
6.1. Finite element model
The commerce software ABAQUS V14.1 (2014) is
used to perform finite element analysis in this paper. The
configuration of FE model is schematically shown in Fig.
13. The four-node reduced integrated shell element S4R
is used to model the flanges and webs of the boundary
elements (HBEs and VBEs) and the inner steel plate. The
RC cover plates and reinforcing bars are simulated using
solid element 3D8R and truss element T3D2 respectively.
The normal and tangential behaviors of interactive
contact between the RC cover plates and the inner steel
plate are modeled by the “hard” contact and friction
formulation with penalty 0.3 respectively. The method of
coupling the degree of freedom is selected to simulate the
bolts. The equal angle plates, gusset plates, and bolts used
to connect the inner panel to the surrounding boundary
elements are generally not considered in the proposed FE
models. The inner steel plate is assumed to be directly
attached to the adjacent elements by the “tie” constraint.
The effect of this approximate was found to be small and
Figure 14. Constitutive behaviors of steel.
can be ignored (Driver 1997).
A bilinear curve used to describe to the stress-strain
relation of infill steel plate is employed as steel material
properties, as shown in Fig. 14. The bilinear stress-strain
curve extends from the origin to the mean value of the
yield point and the slope is considered to be the mean
modulus of elasticity. After yield point, the hardening
behavior is considered and the stress is assumed to
linearly increase until the plastic strain is up to approximate
0.20. To obtain good energy absorption capacity, the yield
stress of inner steel plate is lower than that of frame
members (HBEs and VBEs) to allow the inner steel plate
yield prior to the boundary members (HBEs and VBEs).
Thus, the main frame (HBEs and VBEs) are made of
Q345 H-section steel (Es =210 GPa, fy =345 MPa, and
νs =0.3). The inner steel plate and reinforcing bar are
Q235 steel (Es =210 GPa, fy =235 MPa, and νs =0.3). In
addition, the concrete damaged plasticity model offered
by ABAQUS package is used to simulate the concrete
behavior. The stress-strain relationship of concrete given
in GB50011-2010 (2010) is adopted in the present study.
The stress-strain diagram is generally of the form shown
schematically in Fig. 15. The RC cover plate is made of
C30 with the cylinder compressive strength 30MPa
(Es =30 GPa, νc =0.2).
Implicit and explicit solvers are applicable to perform
 Shear Resistance of Buckling-restrained Steel Plate Shear Walls
Figure 15. Constitutive behaviors of concrete.
the nonlinear analysis in ABAQUS (HKS 2014). It is
acknowledged that ABAQUS/implicit analysis is frequently
terminated mainly contributed to the convergence problem
primarily caused by excessive contacting pairs, large
deformation, and complicated nonlinear behavior. However,
the explicit solver can be employed to overcome the
challenges as the time increment is reasonably controlled
for a quasi-static analysis. Therefore, in the present study,
ABAQUS/explicit solver is adopted to conduct further
FE analyses. Otherwise, to acquire reliable quasi-static
solutions using the explicit solver, loading rate should be
sufficiently slow. In this way, the excessive kinematic
energy can be avoided. Various loading rates have been
tested before FE analysis and the reasonable rate is found
to be approximately 1 mm/min for numerical simulation.
6.2. The validation of finite element model
The experimental works described above are used to
establish a validation of the proposed FE models. The test
and FE results are clearly compared in Figs. 11(d) and
12(d). It can be found that the proposed FE models may
reasonably predict the shear resistance, overall hysteretic
responses and envelope curves of test specimens. It is
also noted that the predicted curves generally show
slightly higher stiffness than the test results. Nevertheless,
a good fit is generally observed. Thus, the other shear
wall configurations can be reliably utilized based on the
refined FE models to further perform extensive parameter
study hereinafter.
7. Discussion of Finite Element Results
7.1. The effect of initial imperfection
In this section, a group of FE models is employed to
investigate the effect of a change in the magnitude of the
initial gap between the RC cover plate and the inner panel
from 1.0 mm to infinite on the behavior of the buckling-
restrained shear wall. The details of FE models are
summarized in Table 2 series 4. Figure 16 clearly shows
that an increase of initial gap width generally results in a
decrease in the shear resistance. However, while the value
1243
Figure 16. The effect of initial gaps between the inner
steel plate and the RC cover plates.
of initial gap is not more than about 8.0 mm, its effect on
the shear resistance is small and can be ignored. As the
initial imperfection approaches infinite similar to the case
where the steel plate in the unstiffened SPSW is not
sandwiched by the RC panels, the resulting shear resistance
is the lowest. Meanwhile, the out-of-plane displacement
contour of the infill steel plate is shown in Fig. 17. It clearly
implies that the number of buckling wave significantly
decreases as the magnitude of the initial gap is gradually
increased. Furthermore, the buckling mode inherently
propagates from high order to low order as the initial gap
is widened. Especially, while the magnitude of gap goes
beyond about 8.0 mm where the out-of-plane constraint
stiffness provided by RC cover plates becomes weak, the
loss of buckling wave is more greatly significant. Therefore,
it is reasonably recommended in the present study that the
initial imperfection in the buckling-restrained SPSWs
should be limited to 1/300 of storey height for design
consideration.
7.2. The effect of flexural stiffness of VBEs
To examine the effect of flexural stiffness of VBEs on
the shear resistance of inner steel plate, three groups of
FE models with a different moment of inertia of VBEs is
built. The characteristics of FE models are listed in Table
1244 Mu-Wang Wei et al. / International Journal of Steel Structures, 17(3), 1233-1248, 2017

Table 2. Details of FE models

Infill steel plate RC cover plates VBEs
Initial
FE models Aspect Bolt Moment of imperfection
Length Height Thickness Thickness Cross-section
ratio spacing inertia (mm)
(L, mm) (h, mm) (ts, mm) (tc, mm) (H-D×B×T×t mm)
(L/h) (lb, mm) (Ic,108mm4)
M1-1 1 3000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-100×50×7×5 0.018 2
M1-2 1 3000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-100×100×8×6 0.037 2
M1-3 1 3000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-150×150×10×7 0.16 2
M1-4 1 3000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-200×200×12×8 0.46 2
Series1
M1-5 1 3000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-250×250×14×9 1.1 2
M1-6 1 3000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-300×300×15×10 2.0 2
M1-7 1 3000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-350×350×19×12 4.0 2
M1-8 1 3000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-400×400×21×13 6.5 2
M2-1 1.5 4500 3000 7.5 100 560 H-100×50×7×5 0.018 2
M2-2 1.5 4500 3000 7.5 100 560 H-100×100×8×6 0.037 2
M2-3 1.5 4500 3000 7.5 100 560 H-150×150×10×7 0.16 2
M2-4 1.5 4500 3000 7.5 100 560 H-200×200×12×8 0.46 2
Series2
M2-5 1.5 4500 3000 7.5 100 560 H-250×250×14×9 1.1 2
M2-6 1.5 4500 3000 7.5 100 560 H-300×300×15×10 2.0 2
M2-7 1.5 4500 3000 7.5 100 560 H-350×350×19×12 4.0 2
M2-8 1.5 4500 3000 7.5 100 560 H-400×400×21×13 6.5 2
M3-1 2 6000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-100×50×7×5 0.018 2
M3-2 2 6000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-100×100×8×6 0.037 2
M3-3 2 6000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-150×150×10×7 0.16 2
M3-4 2 6000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-200×200×12×8 0.46 2
Series3
M3-5 2 6000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-250×250×14×9 1.1 2
M3-6 2 6000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-300×300×15×10 2.0 2
M3-7 2 6000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-350×350×19×12 4.0 2
M3-8 2 6000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-400×400×21×13 6.5 2
M4-1 1 3000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-400×400×21×13 6.5 1
M4-2 1 3000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-400×400×21×13 6.5 5
M4-3 1 3000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-400×400×21×13 6.5 8
M4-4 1 3000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-400×400×21×13 6.5 10
M4-5 1 3000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-400×400×21×13 6.5 15
Series4
M4-6 1 3000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-400×400×21×13 6.5 20
M4-7 1 3000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-400×400×21×13 6.5 30
M4-8 1 3000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-400×400×21×13 6.5 40
Unstiffened
M4-8 1 3000 3000 7.5 100 560 H-400×400×21×13 6.5
SPSW

2 series 1-3. It is noted that the moment of inertia of
VBEs in the models (M1-1-M1-6, M2-1-M2-5, and M3-
1-M3-5) do not satisfy the requirement proposed by Eq.
(20), and the others comply with it. The FE results clearly
show that the FE models (M1-7-M1-8, M2-6-M2-8, and
M3-6-M3-8) which have sufficient moment of inertia of
VBEs definitely develop full tension field. However, the
immature tension field generally forms in the FE models
where the moment of inertia of VBEs is less than the
proposed value determined by Eq. (20). A typical stress
contour of inner steel plate showing the development of
tension field is shown in Fig. 18. Moreover, comparing
with the AISC method, the proposed minimum moment
of inertia is reduced by about 63%. Therefore, the
proposed requirement for the moment of inertia of VBEs
in the buckling-restrained SPSWs is reasonably recommended
for design consideration.
7.3. Shear resistance
In addition, it can be found from Fig. 19 that as the
VBEs behave in a stiffer manner the shear resistance of
inner plate substantially increases until in the case where
the tension field fully develops. After that, the shear
resistance likely keeps unchanged, even though the flexural
 Shear Resistance of Buckling-restrained Steel Plate Shear Walls 1245

Figure 17. Out-of-plane displacement contour of the inner steel plate.

Figure 18. The stress contour of the infill steel plate with different moment of inertia for the boundary elements.

that the proposed method is capable of predicting the

shear resistance. The error on average is less than about
10% which is acceptable with reasonable precision.
However, the error of the AISC method generally is more
than approximately 10%. Hence, it is recommended that
the proposed method is suitable for determining the shear
resistance of inner steel plate in buckling-strained SPSWs
for design consideration.

Figure 19. The effect of moment of inertia of VBEs on
the shear resistance.
stiffness of VBEs is steadily increased. Furthermore, to
further establish the validation of the proposed method
used to predict the shear resistance of buckling-restrained
SPSWs, three groups of FE models are employed shown
in Table 4. A comparison made between the FE results
and the predictions by Eq. (31) shown in Table 4 shows
8. Conclusions
In this paper, a modified method based on a high-order
buckling analysis is developed to determine the shear
resistance of the inner plate in the buckling-restrained
SPSWs. Moreover, to fairly uniformly form tension field
in the inner plate, the flexural stiffness demand for the
VBEs is also proposed. In addition, the nonlinear FE
method is employed to establish the validation of the
proposed methods. And the effect of initial imperfection
and flexural stiffness of VBEs is also investigated. Thus,
the following conclusions may be drawn:
(1) The initial imperfection generally exists between
1246 Mu-Wang Wei et al. / International Journal of Steel Structures, 17(3), 1233-1248, 2017

Table 3. Results of FE models

Moment of Proposed minimum moment I c − AISC − I c − proposed

FE models inertia of inertia If Ic≥Iproposed Tension field
(Ic,108mm4) (Ic-proposed, 108mm4) I c − AISC

M1-1 0.018 No Immature

M1-2 0.037 No Immature
M1-3 0.16 No Immature
M1-4 0.46 No Immature
Series1 2.4 63%
M1-5 1.1 No Immature
M1-6 2.0 No Immature
M1-7 4.0 Yes Full
M1-8 6.5 Yes Full
M2-1 0.018 No Immature
M2-2 0.037 No Immature
M2-3 0.16 No Immature
M2-4 0.46 No Immature
Series2 1.6 63%
M2-5 1.05 No Immature
M2-6 2.0 Yes Full
M2-7 4.0 Yes Full
M2-8 6.5 Yes Full
M3-1 0.018 No Immature
M3-2 0.037 No Immature
M3-3 0.16 No Immature
M3-4 0.46 No Immature
Series3 1.2 63%
M3-5 1.05 No Immature
M3-6 2.0 Yes Full
M3-7 4.0 Yes Full
M3-8 6.5 Yes Full

Table 4. A comparison of the shear resistance between FE results and predictions

Inner steel plate Shear resistance
VBEs and HBEs
V − V fe Predictions V p − V fe
FE models Length Height Thickness Cross-section FE results AISC method AISC
V fe (Vp, 103 V fe
(L, mm) (h, mm) (ts, mm) (H-D×B×T×t mm) (Vfe, 10 kN) (VAISC, 10 kN)
3 3
kN)
(%) (%)
M5-1 3000 3000 5 H-400×400×21×13 2.54 2.12 -16.54 2.36 -7.09
M5-2 3000 3000 7.5 H-400×400×21×13 3.73 3.17 -15.01 3.50 -6.17
Series1
M5-3 3000 3000 10 H-400×400×21×13 4.90 4.23 -13.6 4.94 0.08
M5-4 3000 3000 15 H-400×400×21×13 7.10 6.35 -10.56 7.40 4.22
M6-1 4500 3000 5 H-400×400×21×13 3.54 3.17 -10.45 3.34 -5.65
M6-2 4500 3000 7.5 H-400×400×21×13 5.31 4.76 -10.36 4.84 -8.85
Series2
M6-3 4500 3000 10 H-400×400×21×13 7.53 6.35 -15.67 7.40 -1.73
M6-4 4500 3000 15 H-400×400×21×13 10.95 9.52 -13.06 11.10 1.37
M7-1 6000 3000 5 H-400×400×21×13 4.63 4.23 -8.64 4.52 -2.38
M7-2 6000 3000 7.5 H-400×400×21×13 7.12 6.35 -10.81 7.01 -1.54
Series3
M7-3 6000 3000 10 H-400×400×21×13 9.51 8.16 -14.20 9.87 3.79
M7-4 6000 3000 15 H-400×400×21×13 14.32 12.69 -11.38 14.8 3.35
 Shear Resistance of Buckling-restrained Steel Plate Shear Walls
the RC cover plates and it significantly affects the
development of buckling mode in the inner panel. The FE
results clearly show that an increase in the initial gap
commonly results in a decrease in the shear resistance of
inner plate. However, the effect is small and can be
ignored while the magnitude of the initial gap is less than
about 8.0 mm.
(2) A modified method based on the high-order buckling
analysis is developed to predict the shear resistance of
inner panel in buckling-restrained SPSWs. A comparison
against test results reported by others shows a reasonable
agreement. However, the AISC method generally over-
estimates it. Therefore, the proposed modified method is
reasonably recommended to capture the shear resistance
of inner plate for design consideration.
(3) An extensive parametric study carried out to
investigate the effect of flexural stiffness of VBEs on the
behavior of buckling-restrained SPSW clearly shows that
the flexural stiffness of VBEs greatly governs the
development of tension field in the inner steel plate.
While the proposed stiffness requirement is satisfied, the
tension field may fully develop in the inner steel plate.
Therefore it is reasonably recommended that the flexural
stiffness of VBEs should be more than the proposed
minimum requirement for design consideration.
Acknowledgment
This work is supported by the China Scholarship
Council (CSC). The writer wishes to thank Prof. J.Y.
Richard Liew for his assistance in the writing of this
paper. However, any opinions, findings, conclusions and
recommendations presented in this paper are those of the
authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the
sponsors.
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