The shear capacity assessment of steel plate shear walls with peripheral circular holes

Abstract The behavior of the steel plate shear walls with peripheral perforated web plate was investigated experimentally and numerically. Initially, two samples with a 1:3 scale were constructed. The first specimen was considered a conventional steel plate shear wall with a solid web plate, while the second one consisted of eight circular holes with a diameter of 80 mm on each side. Both samples were tested using a cyclic loading protocol, and the results were compared. The experimental results revealed that the sample with peripheral holes while decreasing the boundary conditions loads behaved about 44% more ductile and presented a 28% greater damping ratio without significant fracture up to 5% drift. Then, with verification of numerical modeling, a series of specimens with 60, 80, and 100 mm hole diameter, 0.8, and 1 mm web plate thickness, and various hole numbers were analyzed using the nonlinear finite element method. Finally, a simple analytical equation was proposed to estimate the shear strength of the steel plate shear wall with peripheral circular holes as the percentage of solid web plate. The results of the proposed equation showed acceptable accuracy of the analytical model.