Seismic Behavior and Ductility-Based Shear Resistance Design of Buckling-Restrained Corrugated Steel Plate Shear Walls

Corrugated steel plate shear walls (CSWs) increasingly have been recognized as an effective lateral force–resisting system in recent years. To achieve excellent postpeak shear strength and ductility of the shear wall, this study proposes a buckling-restrained corrugated steel plate shear wall (BRCSW) system, consisting of infilled corrugated steel plates (CSPs) and square steel tubular stiffeners. Experimental and finite-element (FE) numerical studies were conducted on the BRCSW system. Two large-scale specimens—with one and two pairs of stiffeners, respectively—were tested under cyclic lateral loads. Similar failure patterns were exhibited in both specimens, including CSP buckling and tearing, and fracture of the stiffener and CSP edge welds. The specimen with two pairs of stiffeners experienced only slight local buckling, and maintained a stable in-plane shear-resistant mechanism within the 2.0% drift ratio specified by design codes. Both specimens demonstrated excellent hysteretic behavior, achieving drift ratios exceeding 2.0%, ductility ratios between 4.1 and 4.7, and maximum equivalent damping ratios above 0.4. FE models were developed and validated against the test results. The validated FE models were used to conduct eigenvalue buckling and nonlinear pushover analyses to develop a ductility-based design method. Formulas for shear elastic buckling coefficients of the BRCSW are proposed, incorporating both bending and torsional rigidities of stiffening systems. Nonlinear pushover analyses showed that when the normalized slenderness ratio does not exceed 0.532, the ultimate and residual shear strength factors of the shear wall exceed 0.95 and 0.85, respectively. This normalized slenderness ratio threshold was identified as the buckling-restrained criterion for BRCSWs, ensuring desirable ultimate and postpeak shear performance. Quantitative design recommendations are provided for the subpanel width-to-thickness ratio, number of stiffeners, and bending rigidity ratio of the stiffeners to the CSP.