Post-earthquake Fire Behavior of Steel Plate Shear Walls

Abstract

Recently steel plate shear walls were used as a lateral load-resisting system in multi-story buildings due to their significant stiffness and post-buckling strength. Typical steel plate shear walls consist of a steel plate acting as the main shear-resisting element that is welded to the boundary columns and beams. These shear walls are preferred more and more every day because they are ductile, lightweight, and economical. On the other hand, it is important to examine the behavior of thin steel plate shear walls in the event of a fire that may occur after an earthquake due to natural gas leakage or electrical contact. In this paper, the change in stiffness and displacements of a steel plate shear wall due to fire-induced temperature is investigated using a single-story and single-bay steel plate shear wall ABAQUS model. Furthermore, effect of steel plate yield strength on the shear wall behavior was investigated. In the case of using higher yield strength steel, better behavior in stiffness and beam deflection, and a smaller value in out-of-plane displacement of the plate were obtained. As a result of the analytical study, the out-of-plane displacement in the infill plate increased with temperature. When the model was exposed to high heat for 35 minutes, it was observed that the permanent lateral stiffness was reduced by half. In 40 minutes, it lost almost all of its rigidity. When the steel grade was increased to S275, the loss of rigidity time was prolonged.