Numerical study on split base plate connection with concentric anchors between steel-plate composite wall and concrete basemat

Steel-plate composite (SC) walls can be connected to a concrete basemat using a base plate and a set of anchors eccentric to the wall. The base plate can be separated into two parts so that the concrete of the wall and basemat is cohesive, and thus, the wall can be manufactured more easily and economically. Additionally, compression and shear demand are directly transferred from infill concrete to concrete basemat. Another change in the base plate connection of available tested walls involves transferring anchors to the bottom of faceplates. As a result of this modification, the base plate is removed from the force transmission chain, and the force is transferred directly from the wall to the anchors. After presenting the design criteria for this type of connection, three test walls with concrete foundations were verified in LS-Dyna. The walls were modeled with a split base plate connection and concentric anchors, and then compared to other types of wall-basemat connections. Three rectangular sections were then chosen as benchmarks and modeled with three anchors of different sizes to evaluate the effect of this parameter on walls behavior. The design equations presented for the single base plate connection were found applicable to design split base plate connections. Then all walls were compared to the test wall-fixed base wall connection. Finally, the models were analyzed with elastic walls to determine whether the foundation is stronger than the wall. The split base plate connection with concentric anchors was found to be stronger than connected parts and can be an alternative to existing connections.