Influence of staggered steel plate shear wall to response of building due to earthquake

Abstract

This study presents the influence of the staggering elements in the steel plate shear wall (SPSW) to the response of the building due to earthquakes. Previously, Malaysia is not concerned about the earthquake since it is located in the earthquake free zone. However, the earthquake has now become a concern in the design of buildings in Malaysia as the tremors from the neighbours' earthquake events can be felt in the country and thus, affects the building structures. The designers and engineers start to take initiative to overcome this issue by adapting the shear wall system that has been used widely in the countries affected by the earthquake. The system is made of infill steel plates called steel plate shear wall (SPSW) and it was being used in tall buildings since the 1980s. The two first countries that used this system are the USA and Japan which has become a starting point of the SPSW system to be developed widely. Accordingly, various modifications and strategies have been applied to the conventional system to fulfil the needs and conditions of the tall buildings in resisting the lateral seismic forces. Though, among the various modifications, there is no established modification on the arrangements of the steel plates. Therefore, this study is trying to find out what will happen to the performance of the tall buildings if the steel plates are arranged in a staggered manner. To fulfil the needs of this study, ten 5-storey models building were analysed using Abaqus software. The models are Model 1 which modelled without SPSW, Model 2 which modelled with two-bays SPSWs, Model 3 which modelled intermittently within two-bays from top to bottom level, Model 4 also modelled intermittently within two-bays but from top to level 2 only, Model 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 were modelled with SPSWs within three-bays with various arrangements but only Model 9 have no SPSWs at the top level, and Model 10 was modelled with SPSWs that continuous vertically from top to bottom level. Then, the comparisons of the maximum displacement and maximum acceleration of all models were carried out accordingly. Models 3 and 4 have the best arrangement of the SPSWs as they have the lowest acceleration while models 2, 6, and 9 have the worst arrangement of the SPSWs due to their high acceleration values. All models with SPSWs are capable to lower the maximum displacement to the desired value.