Analysis of Coupled Steel Plate Shear Walls with Outrigger System for Tall Buildings

Steel plate shear wall (SPSW) had shown a good performance against lateral load in laboratories and last earthquakes. Despite its high shear stiffness, its low bending stiffness is the main concern about this system. Outriggers in conjunction with coupled SPSW that is investigated in this paper form an effective system with a high shear and bending stiffness as well as great strength. To overcome determining the optimal location of outrigger in the system, equations governing the behavior of the proposed combined system are obtained. The results of the proposed equations are in good agreement with the results of the finite element model. The findings indicate that the location of an outrigger is much more important than its rigidity. Moreover, this study shows that column rigidity has a minor effect on controlling the lateral deformations. In addition, by increasing the rigidity of beams, the lateral drift of a building structure diminishes.