Response of Steel-plate Concrete (SC) Wall Piers to Combined In-plane and Out-of-plane Seismic Loadings

Keywords: Earthquake engineering, uclear power plants, composite shear walls, in-plane loading, out-of-plane loading, experiments, finite elements, LS-DYNA

Abstract: This report presents results of experimental and numerical studies on the combined in-plane and out-of-plane behavior of steel-plate concrete composite shear walls. Three medium-scale rectangular steel-plate concrete wall specimens were tested at the Bowen Laboratory at Purdue University. The effects of out-of-plane loading and tie bar spacing on in-plane capacity of steel-plate concrete walls were the primary foci of the investigation. The results of the experiments indicate that the out-of-plane load has a significant effect on the in-plane behavior of steel-plate concrete walls and the effects become very significant as the out-of-plane load develops an average shear stress that is greater than the inclined cracking load of the concrete. Finite element models of the test specimens were developed in LS-DYNA. The LS-DYNA model was used in a parametric study to formulate design guidance for steel-plate concrete walls subjected to combined in-plane and out-of-plane loading.