Effects of openings geometry and relative area on seismic performance of steel shear walls

摘要

Steel shear wall possesses priority over many of the current lateral load-bearing systems due to reasons like higher elastic stiffness, desirable ductility and energy absorption, convenience in construction and implementation technology, and economic criteria. Besides these advantages, this system causes increase in the dimensions of other structural elements due to its high stiffness as one of its intrinsic characteristics. One of the methods for stiffness reduction is perforating the wall panel and creating openings in the wall that can also be used as windows or ducts in buildings service period. The aim of the present study is probing the appropriate geometric shape and location of opening to fulfil economic criterion plus technical and seismic design criteria. In the present research, a number of possible while reasonable opening shapes and locations are defined in various sizes for some steel shear wall specimens. The specimens are modelled in ABAQUS finite elements software and analyzed using nonlinear pushover analysis. Finally, the analyses' results are reported as force-displacement diagrams and the strength, the initial stiffness and the energy absorption are calculated for all specimens and compared together. The obtained results show that both shape and location of the openings affect the seismic parameters of the shear wall. The specimens in which the openings are further from the center and closer to the columns possess higher stiffness and strength while the specimens in which the openings are closer to the center show more considerable changes in their seismic parameters in response to increase in opening area.