An Experimental Study of In-Plane Behavior of Steel-Plate Composite Walls with Boundary Elements

Steel-plate composite (SC) walls are being used in the third generation of nuclear power plants. SC walls are composed of steel faceplates, connectors and infill concrete, where the connectors are typically constructed from cross-wall tie rods and shear studs welded to the faceplates. The connectors used to transfer shear between faceplate and concrete. The AISC N690s1 provides recommendations for in-plane shear strength, out-of-plane shear strength and out-of-plane flexure strength for steel-plate composite walls, but not for in-plane flexure strength. A recent study concludes that the in-plane shear strength of steel-plate composite walls with boundary elements was underestimated in AISC N690. The behavior of four SC walls with boundary elements subjected to cyclic in-plane loading is summarized in this study. The experiment was executed in the laboratory of National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE) in Taiwan. Thick steel plates were used as boundary elements of the four specimens. The specimens were designed to study two kinds of failure modes, including 1) shear critical walls with an aspect ratio of 0.75 and a thickness of 3 cm for boundary elements; and 2) flexure critical walls with an aspect ratio of 1.22 and a thickness of 2 cm for boundary elements. The test results were compared with the recommendations of AISC N690s1 and selected literatures. The impact of wall aspect ratio, concrete compressive strength and wall thickness on the in-plane shear strength and in-plane flexure strength of SC walls with boundary elements were discussed.