Cyclic Behavior of Two-Layer Flat-CSSWs with Square Opening

Flat-CSSWs (FCSSWs) have been introduced recently to enhance standard steal shear walls’ (SSWs) lateral behavior. The present paper studied the productivity of a two-layer SSW (SSW) system composed of a flat and corrugated plate with and without centrally-placed square opening under cyclic loading in the finite element Abaqus software. The results showed that adding central square openings decreased resistance, initial rigidity, and energy absorption. In general, owing to the opening, the maximum lateral resistance and energy intake have decreased by 31.4% and 45.9%, respectively. The maximum lateral resistance and energy absorption of FCSSWs have been achieved compared to flat SSWs. The difference between the maximum resistance and energy absorption of the two is 10.5% and 54.1%, respectively, which indicates the influence of the flat-corrugated system on the amount of energy absorption compared with the traditional flat SSW system. Also, despite severe pinching in the hysteresis curve of flat SSWs with and without an opening, the pinching phenomenon is not displayed in the hysteresis curve of FCSSWs with an opening. The average equivalent viscous damping in flat SSWs and FCSSWs is 31.77% and 39.35%, respectively. Also, raising the corrugated plate’s corrugation angle has increased the structural parameters. However, this increase is not significant. In addition to the fully connected FCSSWs samples to the boundary members, the investigation of the behavior of the beam-connected samples showed that the resistance and energy absorption in this system is between 13% and 14.2% compared to the corresponding samples with and without openings.