Investigation of the effect of trapezoidal infill plate angle on the behavior of the corrugated steel shear walls – An experimental and numerical study

Studies on corrugated steel shear walls (CSSWs) generally indicate a noticeable increase in energy absorption, as well as an increasing shear buckling capacity of corrugated plates more than the flat plates. In this article, the effect of changing the angle of the trapezoidal panel on the behavior of CSSWs has extensively been investigated. Three specimens of CSSW with one story and single bay in half‐scale are tested under cyclic load. Gravity loads are not applied at the top of the walls; however, the horizontal load has been applied at the top of each specimen. The loading sequence has been implemented through “displacement control” with increasing and decreasing amplitudes. The observations of the experiment do indicate that stress concentration has been increased in the corner of subpanels, by increasing the corrugation angle. Also, the stiffness and energy dissipation are getting decreased, by growing the corrugation angle. Investigating the numerical models has been showing that in CSSW, seismic factors are affected by corrugation angle; however, varying parameters against changing angles do not show any reasonable relationship. The obtained results of investigating the effect of surrounding frame stiffness variation on the behavior of walls have also been indicating that increasing frame stiffness shall not be leading to improving all seismic parameters.