Experimental evaluation and numerical simulation of low-yield-point steel shear panel dampers

•A new shear panel damper with different out-of-plane stiffeners is proposed.•A weakened shape of flange stiffeners is investigated to postpone the plate boundary failure.•Three full-scale specimens are designed and tested.•A plasticity analysis of LYP225 steel concerning cyclic hardening is conducted.•A simplified calibration method for a combined hardening constitutive model with memory effects is proposed.•The cyclic response of shear panel dampers is well simulated. Shear panel dampers are considered as a type of reliable passive energy dissipation device for seismic resistant structures with a damage-controlling concept. It has been revealed that the shear bulking of core plates and the premature failure of boundary plates are the main concerns for a shear panel damper that result in insufficient energy dissipation and undesirable ultra-low cycle fatigue performance. This study utilizes square steel tubes serving as out-of-plane stiffeners for the core plates made of a low-yield-point steel with a nominal yield stress of 225 MPa (named LYP225 steel). Meanwhile, a reduced flange plate section is adopted to mitigate the end fracture. An experimental study is carried out on three full-scale damper specimens with different flange plates and loading protocols. The test results show that the square tubes well prevent the bulking of the core plates and all the specimens exhibit plump hysteretic response and satisfactory energy dissipation capacity. The reduced plate sections reduce the likelihood of crack propagation occurring at the flange end, and thereby improve the ultra-low cycle fatigue performance. In order to develop the numerical model of shear panel dampers, a combined-hardening constitutive model with a memory surface is applied to represent the plasticity of LYP225 steel. Based on a plasticity analysis, a simplified calibration procedure is proposed associated with the three-dimensional constitutive model, where the plasticity parameters of LYP225 steel are determined using only the monotonic tensile test data. Eventually, the numerical results of uniaxial specimens and damper specimens are in good agreement with the test results, which validates the effectiveness of the constitutive model and the proposed calibration method.