Hysteretic behavior of cold-formed steel reinforced concrete shear walls with steel meshes

To satisfy the requirements of hysteretic behavior of cold-formed steel (CFS) shear walls in mid-high buildings, a new type of cold-formed steel reinforced concrete (CSRC) shear wall with steel meshes on both sides is proposed in this study. Steel mesh is made of galvanized steel sheet by pressing holes, and there are horizontal ribbed stiffeners and rectangular grids arranged at equal intervals. Five full-scale specimens with different configurations were tested subjected to reversed cyclic loading to assess the failure mode, load-bearing capacity, ductility, lateral stiffness, energy dissipation and strain. The effects of the aspect ratio, the presence of horizontal reinforcing bars, the presence of X-shaped bracing, and the horizontal reinforcement ratio were analyzed. The results showed that the shear wall shows more pronounced flexural failure characteristics with the increase of the aspect ratio. Horizontal reinforcing bars could reduce the concentration of crack distribution and improve the shear capacity of the shear wall, whereas the increase of the horizontal reinforcement ratio from 0.35% to 0.65% had little effect on the hysteretic behavior of the wall in bending failure. The X-shaped bracing significantly improved the load-bearing capacity and moderated the pinching effect of the hysteresis curve before peak load, but reduced the ductility of the wall. Finally, the restoring force model based on the experimental data and theoretical analysis was established, and the hysteretic behavior of CSRC shear walls was well predicted.