Buckling-restrained steel plate shear walls using recycled aggregate concrete: Experimental and analytical study

To meet the demands of the sustainable development of construction, the combination of precast structures and recycled aggregate concrete made from construction and demolition waste is being promoted as a promising green construction technology. In this study, a new prefabricated member, a buckling-restrained steel plate shear wall with a cover plate made of recycled aggregate concrete (PBRW), was developed and experimentally studied. Eight specimens were tested to study the effect of the cover plate with different recycled aggregate substitution ratios and various bolt arrangements on the seismic behavior of this shear wall system. Based on the high-order buckling in the inner steel plate, a theoretical method was proposed to predict the shear resistance of PBRWs. The test results indicated that the PBRWs exhibited high shear strength, an adequate initial stiffness, a favorable energy absorption capacity, and a stable hysteresis curve. A full replacement of recycled aggregate with natural aggregate had almost no adverse impact on the seismic behavior of the PBRWs. The wall with an insufficient number of bolts (bolt arrangement of 3x2) imposed weaker lateral constraints on the inner plate, resulting in a reduction in the seismic behavior.