Seismic Design and Performance of Self-Centering Steel Plate Shear Walls

The self-centering steel plate shear wall (SC-SPSW) is a new seismic load-resisting system that combines the strength and stiffness properties of the SPSW with the recentering capabilities of posttensioned (PT) beam-to-column connections. This paper outlines a proposed seismic design procedure aimed at achieving specified structural performance targets and analytical methods for modeling such a system. A series of 3-and 9-story prototype buildings located in a high seismic zone in California was designed using the procedure, and nonlinear, dynamic analyses were performed for these prototype buildings using ground motions representing three seismic hazard levels. The analysis results show that the systems achieved the desired performance objectives, including recentering of the lateral system.