The Effect of Geometric Nonlinearity on the Seismic Performance of Steel Plate Shear Wall (SPSW) Systems

Recently, steel plate shear wall (SPSW) systems have attracted a lot of attention to be used as reliable lateral load resisting systems in areas of high seismicity. The main problem associated with the analysis and design of SPWS systems, particularly in high-rise buildings, is that the structural model cannot be numerically converged due to the effects of geometric nonlinearity using thin-walled webs while experiencing significant membrane actions in shell elements. The present study examines whether neglecting the geometric nonlinearity on the numerical modeling of SPSW system affects the accuracy of the models. This study confirms that neglecting the geometric nonlinearity in the numerical models can significantly overestimate the seismic capacity of SPSW systems between 10% and 17% depending on the height of the building considered. This modeling issue can be proved extremely critical in modeling tall buildings equipped with SPSW systems while the geometric nonlinearity is ignored in order to help the large model to converge.