Civil Engineering Seminar Series – Structural Behavior & Seismic Performance Of Low Yield Point (LYP) Steel Shear Wall Systems

 

ABSTRACT: Steel plate shear walls (SPSWs) have been frequently used as the primary or part of the primary lateral force-resisting system in design of buildings. Their application has been based on two different design philosophies as well as detailing strategies. Stiffened and/or stocky-web SPSWs with improved buckling stability and high seismic performance have been mostly used in Japan. Unstiffened and slender-web SPSWs with relatively lower buckling and energy dissipation capacities, on the other hand, have been deemed as a rather economical alternative and accordingly widely used in the United States and Canada. Development and use of low yield point (LYP) steel with considerably low yield stress and high elongation capacity provides the possibility to combine merits of these two distinctive design strategies, and consequently result in rather cost-effective and high-performing SPSW systems. In this research, the structural behavior and seismic performance of unstiffened LYP steel shear wall systems have been evaluated in a systematic and comprehensive manner through element-level investigations on steel plates, component-level investigations on SPSW panels, and system-level investigations on multi- story steel frame-shear wall structures. In addition, the fragility methodology is utilized by developing appropriate fragility functions for probabilistic seismic performance and vulnerability assessment of structures designed and retrofitted with conventional and LYP steel infill plates. The results of this study are indicative of relatively lower damage probability and superior seismic performance of LYP steel shear wall systems.

 

BIO: Tadeh Zirakian received his Ph.D. in Structural and Earthquake Engineering and minoring in Structural Mechanics from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering & Environmental Science at Loyola Marymount University, and will start his Assistant Professorship Appointment at the Department of Civil Engineering and Construction Management at the California State University, Northridge, in July 2015. Zirakian has been lecturing numerous general engineering, mechanical engineering, and civil engineering courses at various institutions and universities including the University of California, Los Angeles, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, California State University, Los Angeles, and Loyola Marymount University. Zirakian has authored and co-authored numerous research papers published and presented in prestigious engineering journals and conferences. His primary research interests are in Structural and Earthquake Engineering, with emphases on the stability of thin-walled structures as well as seismic design and performance evaluation of structural systems and buildings.