Investigating the behavior of boundary elements in steel shear walls with different connections

In the recent five decades, steel shear walls have been one of the most important systems in the construction and rehabilitation of many structures. The system has many advantages including high strength and stiffness, high ductility and excellent energy dissipation capacity. Steel shear walls are made and executed in different types. These include walls with and without stiffeners as well as composites. Recent research shows that they are a type of steel shear wall in which the infill plate is slightly away from the boundary members. In fact, there is no connection between the infill plate and one of boundary members. Therefore, in this study, the behavior of traditional one-story-one-span steel shear walls with 4 different lengths was investigated. For comparison, walls in which the sheet was attached only to a beam or column were examined. Obtained results from the study showed that the lateral bearing capacity of samples with free beam or free column is less than that of samples with full connection, on average 20%. Also, the strength of the samples with free column is slightly higher than the samples with free beam. In addition, boundary members, especially columns, are much less affected by forces in free-column specimens than in other specimens, and this could decreases economical costs.