Finite element modelling and design of steel plate shear wall buckling-restrained by hat-section cold-formed steel members

Steel plate shear wall (SPSW) buckling-restrained by hat-section cold-formed steel is a new type of lateral bearing system that uses hat-section cold-formed steel members to restrain the buckling deformation of the SPSW. Integration of architectural and structural functions is achieved in this new shear wall system by externally bonding oriented strand board (OSB) and filling sound insulation material. A finite element (FE) model was developed and validated against seven experimental results in terms of failure modes, shear force-story drift angle curves and shear bearing capacities. Upon validation, an extensive parametric study was carried out to investigate the six key parameters including spacing of connecting bolts, geometries of hat-section steel, spacing of hat-section steel, steel material strength, width-height ratio of the SPSW and height-thickness ratio of the SPSW. Based on the 104 numerical results, new design rules are proposed to predict the stiffness, shear yielding strength and shear ultimate strength of this new type of buckling-restrained SPSW structure. By comparing the predicted results with experimental and numerical results, the proposed design method is found to be accurate and consistent. In addition, an equivalent cross-bar model is developed as a simplified substituted SPSW model to be used in theoretical modelling programmes in the future.