Experimental Study of High-Strength Concrete-Steel Plate Composite Shear Walls

Shear walls are effective lateral load resisting elements in high-rise buildings. This paper presents an experimental study of the seismic performance of a composite shear wall system that consists of high-strength concrete walls with the embedded steel plate. Two sets of wall specimens with different aspect ratios (height/width, 1.5 and 2.7) were constructed and tested under quasi-static reversed cyclic loading, including five reinforced concrete shear walls (RCSW) and six reinforced concrete-steel plate shear walls (RCSPSW). The progression of damage, failure modes, and load-displacement responses of test specimens were studied and compared based on experimental observations. The test results indicated that high-strength (HS) RCSPSW system showed superior lateral load strength and acceptable deformation capability. The axial compressive load was found to have an indispensable effect on the ductility of both RCSW and RCSPSW, and an upper limit of axial compression ratio (0.5) is recommended for the application of HS RCSPSW in engineering practices. In addition, the design strength models were suggested for predicting the shear and flexure peak strength values of RCSPSW systems, and their applicability and reliability were verified by comparing with test results.