Experimental study on the shear behavior of cold-formed steel clamped thin steel plate shear walls and screw connections

In this paper, the shear performance of cold-formed steel clamped thin steel plate shear wall (CFS-CTSPSW) was experimentally investigated, utilizing clamped end columns to enhance the confinement of thin steel plates. Firstly, four self-tapping screw connection specimens were subjected to monotonic and cyclic loading. The results indicated that cyclic loading caused progressive damage to the thin steel plates and reduced the load-bearing capacity of the screw connections. Furthermore, quasi-static loading tests were conducted on four full-scale CFS-CTSPSWs. The damage characteristics, hysteresis curves, skeleton curves, energy-dissipation capacity, strength degradation, and stiffness degradation of the CFS-CTSPSWs were evaluated. The results demonstrated that, compared with a pure steel frame, the clamped steel plate improved the integrity of the shear wall and formed tensile bands under load action, thereby increasing the initial stiffness by 4.93 times, ultimate load-bearing capacity by 1.75 times, and energy-dissipation performance by 70 %. The rigid strips resisted horizontal loads along with the thin steel plates, thereby increasing the peak shear capacity by 45 %. However, the rigid strips restricted the horizontal plastic deformation of the steel frame and decreased the ductility by 45 % of the steel walls. Finally, the recommendations and comments on the design methodology of the CFS-CTSPSW s were given.