Comparative Investigation on Structural Behaviors of Two-Side Clamped Thin Plates Made of Low-Yield Point Steel

The main subject of this study was about the structural behavior of two-side clamped steel plate shear walls, which are appropriate to be implemented into existing structures for seismic retrofit. Full-scale two-side clamped steel plate shear wall specimens made of low-yield point steel and conventional steel grade were tested. Test results showed that the thin plate made of low-yield point steel possesses a deformation capacity without strength degradation three times greater than that of conventional steel. Its cumulative ductility was also increased by up to 3.2 times in comparison to the thin plate made of conventional steel. The premature material yielding and enhanced ductility influence on the development of the tension field action with multi-struts, which has become the main load-carrying mechanism of thin plates. To further investigate their cyclic behaviors at the post-buckling stage, this study constructed analysis models that can capture the test results of two-side clamped thin-plate specimens. The principal stress and angle distribution obtained from the analysis results demonstrated that the thin plate made of low-yield point steel under significantly larger drift ratios was in a pure shear stress state at both its center and the vicinity of the horizontal boundary element. From the test and analysis results, the entire cross section of thin wall made of low-yield point steel was yielded so that a design equation for four-side clamped thin walls prescribed in the current seismic codes was applied to two-side clamped thin walls made of low-yield point steel.