Influence of steel plate thickness on the reinforced concrete frame under cyclic loading.

Abstract

Reinforced concrete (RC) frame is most commonly used in high-rise buildings despite having proven to have a low lateral force resistance. Steel plate reinforced concrete shear wall (SPRCW) has an excellent performance in resisting seismic load. SPRCW has an excellent performance in resisting seismic load as it has been proven to have better stiffness, ductility, structural response, reduction in dead load and wall thickness. SPCRW also has an advantage in reduction of cost and time of construction as compared to RC frame. The lateral deformation, ultimate lateral load and ductility are affected by the thickness of the steel plate itself. However, the cost of steel nowadays has increased gradually. Though, it can be reduced vastly by optimizing the thickness of steel plate. In this study, the effects of steel plate thickness are investigated in order to identify the optimum steel plate thickness. Therefore, the objective of this study is to determine lateral deformation, ultimate lateral load and ductility of the SPRCW when the thicknesses of steel plates are varied. Ten SPRCW models were analyzed by ABAQUS software, where the models were subjected to lateral cyclic loading as accordance to FEMA 461. Lateral deformation increased when the steel plate thickness was increased and achieved its maximum value when the thickness was at 1.4 mm. The ultimate lateral load also increased as the thickness of steel plate increased. Although the ductility shows increment, the ductility remains constant when steel plate was at 0.8 mm.