Performance of Metal Foam Composite Panel Shear Wall

Abstract

Steel plate shear wall system consists of steel infill plates connected to the boundary elements. Steel plate shear walls possess excellent initial stiffness, high ductility, redundancy, stable hysteresis loops and energy absorption capacity. These properties enable Steel plate shear walls as preferred choice for lateral load resisting system to resist high wind and seismic forces. Metallic form sandwich panels consist of thin steel/aluminum facing sheets attached to a light weight core and have high stiffness, ductility and energy absorption capacity which could be used in lieu of steel infill plates. This study investigates the potential to use metallic form sandwich panels in lieu of conventional steel infill plates in the steel shear wall system. Numerical modeling of steel plate shear walls both using conventional steel plates and using metallic foam sandwich panels was conducted. 18 models were prepared (9 numbers steel plate and 9 numbers sandwich panels) by varying aspect ratios and storey heights to cover maximum possible cases. Non-linear monotonic push over analysis was used to evaluate the ultimate load behavior of steel plate shear walls. The results indicated that metallic foam sandwich panels are excellent substitute for conventional steel plate shear walls. It has been observed that the use of sandwich infill plates improved the performance of steel plate shear walls and is an excellent prospect for lateral load resisting system.