Journal of Constructional Steel Research 131 (2017) 132–143

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Constructional Steel Research

Seismic performance of steel plate reinforced concrete shear wall and its
application in China Mainland
Bin Wang, Huanjun Jiang ⁎, Xilin Lu
State Key laboratory of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Research Institute of Structural Engineering and Disaster Reduction, College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Reinforced concrete (RC) shear wall is one of the predominant structural components used extensively in high-
Received 22 March 2016 rise buildings to resist lateral loads induced by earthquakes around the world. However, the past earthquake ex-
Received in revised form 25 December 2016 perience and previous research indicated that RC shear walls at the bottom of high-rise buildings may display the
Accepted 1 January 2017
undesirable performance when subjected to severe earthquakes. For this reason, the steel plate reinforced con-
Available online xxxx
crete (SPRC) composite shear walls have been developed, and especially popularly used in super-tall buildings
Keywords:
in China Mainland in recent years. At first, the application of SPRC shear walls in China Mainland is briefly intro-
Steel plate reinforced concrete shear wall duced. Then the modelling techniques with the aid of software OpenSees to simulate the hysteretic behavior of
Numerical model SPRC shear walls are presented and validated by typical experimental results. The verified numerical model is
Parametric study further used in the parametric study focusing on a number of important parameters, including the steel plate
Seismic performance ratio, the axial compressive load ratio, the concrete strength, and the web reinforcement ratio. The results of
this parametric study provide useful information for the engineering application of SPRC shear walls.
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction
RC shear walls have been widely used in tall buildings in earthquake
prone areas due to their high lateral stiffness and strength. It was found
from the past earthquake experience that the RC shear walls in some tall
buildings suffered severe damage that usually concentrated at the bot-
tom story, such as the failure of RC shear walls in the 22 February
2010 Maule Earthquake and 22 February 2011 Christchurch Earthquake
[1–3]. Especially for the shear walls with high axial compressive load
ratio, inadequate confinement in the boundary zones, and relatively
lower shear strength, they are prone to suffer earthquake damage. To
ensure the desirable seismic performance of RC shear walls, the limit
for the axial compressive load ratio, considerate reinforcement details
in the wall web and boundary elements are specified in the related seis-
mic design codes. As the result of design code requirements, RC shear
walls in the bottom stories of super-tall buildings are often designed
with large thickness and dense steel reinforcement. The thick walls
may occupy considerable useful space, while increasing the self-weight
of the entire structure, which in turn amplifies the earthquake force. On
the other hand, increasing the amount of vertical and horizontal steel
reinforcement in RC walls could not improve their ductility and energy
dissipation capacity effectively [4]. Congestion of reinforcement at the
wall web and boundary zones often causes serious difficulties in
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jhj73@tongji.edu.cn (H. Jiang).
construction. For this reason, steel plate reinforced concrete (SPRC)
shear wall which can overcome the above drawbacks of RC shear
walls due to the advantageous characteristics of two constructional ma-
terials, steel and concrete was developed. It has been applied in super-
tall buildings popularly in China Mainland in recent years.
Generally, the SPRC shear walls can be classified into two categories
according to the different configuration of steel plates and concrete, as
shown in Fig. 1. The first category is the SPRC shear wall with the steel
plate embedded in the concrete [5–7]. The second category is concrete
filled double-steel-plate (CFSP) shear wall [8–11]. Compared with
SPRC shear walls, the application of CFSP shear walls is much less pop-
ular, due to the drawbacks of easier buckling of steel plates, the con-
struction difficulty of connection between wall and floor, etc. This
study focuses on the first type of SPRC shear walls. Hereinafter the
SPRC shear wall only refers to the first type.
Although the SPRC shear wall has been applied in engineering prac-
tice, and the preliminary design provisions are specified in the latest
Chinese design code JGJ3-2010 [12], the research work which has
been carried out on it up to now is very limited. The existing numerical
models developed for the SPRC shear wall can hardly simulate the hys-
teretic behavior of SPRC shear walls. Most of them are common finite el-
ement models individually considering the properties of constituent
concrete, steel plate and shear studs, by which the structural analysis
of super-tall building structures is time consuming. The modelling tech-
nique needs improvement. In addition, the effects of main design pa-
rameters on the seismic performance of the SPRC shear wall are not

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcsr.2017.01.003
0143-974X/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 B. Wang et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 131 (2017) 132–143 133

Fig. 2. Typical view of SPRC shear wall in construction site of Shanghai Tower.
Fig. 1. General configuration for SPRC and CFSP walls.

clear. However, such kind of knowledge could be beneficial to its appli-
cation in the engineering practice. The objective of this paper is to devel-
op improved numerical model to simulate the hysteretic behavior of the
SPRC shear wall and then carry out the parametric analysis on its seis-
mic performance through numerical simulation. Conclusions and de-
sign recommendations are drawn accordingly.
1. Application of SPRC shear walls in China mainland
There is a surge in the construction of super-tall buildings in China
since the 1990s. According to statistic data, China accounts for 55%
buildings of the twenty top super-tall buildings around the world
under construction currently [13]. SPRC shear walls were applied in
most of the buildings with the height over 400 m and the buildings
with the height over 200 m in the region with the seismic intensity of
8. Table 1 shows the structural design parameters of typical super-tall
buildings adopting the SPRC shear walls in China Mainland.
The buildings listed in Table 1 are located in regions with the risk of
moderate to strong earthquakes. The largest value of steel plate ratio is
close to 6%. The high-strength concrete is preferred in super-tall build-
ings to meet the demand of the high load-carrying capacity of the struc-
tural components. However, for the brittle post-peak behavior of high-
strength concrete, the upper limit of the compressive strength of con-
crete in engineering application in China Mainland is 60 MPa in general
case. If reasonable measures are taken to improve the component duc-
tility, such as reduced axial compressive load ratio, the concrete with
higher strength is allowed to be used.
Fig. 2 presents a typical engineering application of SPRC shear walls
in Shanghai Tower with the total height of 632 m. The steel plates are
embedded in RC walls and the buckling of the steel plates could be
prevented even under severe earthquakes. Shear studs should be
welded on both sides of the steel plate to reduce the bond-slip between
the concrete and steel plate. The embedded shape steel at the boundary
columns can enhance the load carrying capacity. As can be expected, the
SPRC walls can improve the capacity of carrying the compressive force
and shear force, and reduce the self-weight of the structure by the use
of thinner walls, compared with conventional RC walls.
2. Numerical model for SPRC shear walls
The modelling and nonlinear analyses in this study were conducted
with the aid of the software OpenSees [14]. The numerical model can
take the interaction between axial force, bending moment and shear
force into account. The details of the numerical model are described as
follows.
2.1. Numerical model
A numerical model for the SPRC shear wall was developed in
OpenSees, as shown in Fig. 3. Boundary elements of SPRC wall were
modelled by using the displacement-based beam-column fiber element
which can ensure both reasonable level of accuracy and convergence ef-
ficiency [15,16]. To incorporate the confining effect induced by the stir-
rup in boundary elements, the concrete zone in the numerical model
was divided into the unconfined concrete zone (concrete cover) and
the confined concrete zone. The shape steel embedded in boundary el-
ements was represented by a number of discrete steel fibers. The quad
element with a bilinear isoparametric formulation was used to model
the web of SPRC wall, including the RC panel and steel plate. Elastic

Table 1
Structural design parameters of typical super-tall buildings in China Mainland.

Building name Height Number of storya Concrete strength fcu (MPa)b Steel plate ratioc Seismic intensityd Completion year
(m)

Shanghai Tower 632 124 (13) 60 4.0% 7 2015

Shenzhen Ping An Finance Center 600 115 (12) 60 3.5% 7 2016
Tianjin Golding Finance 117 597 117 (36) 60 5.0% 7.5 2016
Guangzhou East Tower 530 112 (32) 80 2.7% 7 2015
Tianjin Chow Tai Fook Center 530 94 (23) 60 3.0% 7.5 2018
China Zun Tower 528 108 (41) 60 5.0% 8 2018
Fortune Financial Center phase II 267 61 (19) 60 5.8% 8 2014
Beijing Greenland Center 260 55 (5) 60 3.3% 8 2016
a
The number in bracket denotes the number of stories adopting SPRC walls.
b
fcu is the cubic compressive strength of concrete.
c
The value is the steel plate ratio in the ground floor.
d
The design basic acceleration of ground motions is 0.1 g, 0.15 g and 0.2 g respectively for seismic intensity of 7, 7.5 and 8.
134 B. Wang et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 131 (2017) 132–143

Fig. 3. Numerical model for SPRC shear wall.

beam-column elements were used to model the rigid loading beam
where the axial compressive load and lateral load were applied.
The behavior of shear studs connecting the RC panel and embedded
steel plate was simulated by using the command “equalDOF”, which
would make the nodes of RC panel and steel plate elements have the
identical coordinates. In other words, the bond-slip between the con-
crete and steel plate was ignored in this model. To be noted, this as-
sumption may be unsuitable when there are no enough shear studs to
coordinate the deformation under cyclic loading. The command
“equalDOF” was also used to model the deformation compatibility be-
tween the boundary element and the web of SPRC wall. All nodes at
the base of the walls were entirely fixed. The mesh size was recom-
mended to be equal to the plastic hinge length after trialling various dif-
ferent mesh sizes, which is adequate to obtain enough accuracy and
improve the convergence efficiency.
2.2. Material constitutive relationships
The uniaxial Concrete02 model in OpenSees was used as the
constitutive model both for the unconfined concrete and the con-
crete confined by the stirrups. The corresponding stress and
strain values at the peak and crushing point on the curve can be
computed by using the Chang and Mander model [17], as shown
in Fig. 4.
The behavior of the longitudinal reinforcement and shape steel in
the boundary zones was represented by the uniaxial Steel02 material
model. The values for yield strength fy and Young's modulus E0 were de-
termined from the tensile tests for the steel. The strain-hardening ratio
was taken as 1%. The parameters R0, cR1 and cR2, which control the non-
linear curve shape, were taken as 18.5, 0.925 and 0.15, respectively, as
shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 4. Uniaxial stress-strain relationship for concrete. Fig. 5. Uniaxial stress-strain relationship for steel.
 B. Wang et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 131 (2017) 132–143 135

Fig. 6. Comparison of force-displacement hysteretic relationship between the experimental and numerical results.

The RC panel of the SPRC shear wall adopted the plane stress RC ma-
terial model, named FAReinforcedConcretePlaneStress in OpenSees,
which was based on the Cyclic Softened Membrane Model (CSMM) pro-
posed by Mansour and Hsu [18,19]. The cracked reinforced concrete
was assumed to be a continuum material in a smeared crack model.
The material properties were characterized by a set of smeared stress-
strain relationships for the concrete and the steel.
The multi-dimensional material PlaneStressSimplifiedJ2 was
adopted to simulate the steel plate. The values for yield strength fy and
Young's modulus E0 were determined from the tensile tests for the
steel plate. The corresponding bulk modulus K and shear modulus G
were determined from the Young's modulus E0. The buckling of the
steel plate was ignored since it could be avoided due to the lateral re-
straint effect of the surrounding concrete.
2.3. Simulation results and validation
In this section, six typical experiments on the specimens of RC
walls, SRC walls and SPRC walls with different design parameters
were used to validate the numerical model. All specimens consid-
ered in this section were subjected to a concentrated lateral force
at their top in a single bending configuration. The details of the test
specimens are provided as follows, and more design details can be
found in Thomsen and Wallace [20], Lefas and Kotsovos [21], Cao et
al. [22], and Jiang et al. [6].
RW2 was a slender RC wall with the height of 3660 mm and the
cross-section dimensions of 1220 mm × 102 mm. The average compres-
sive strength of the concrete at the testing time was 42.8 MPa. The yield
strengths of longitudinal reinforcement in the boundary zones and the
web, and the hoop steel were 434 MPa, 448 MPa, and 434 MPa, respec-
tively. The axial compressive load of 378 kN was applied at the top of the
wall by the load transfer assembly. The specimen was subjected to cyclic
loading controlled by the displacement with two cycles at each ampli-
tude level. The first cycle at the lateral drift level of 0.5% resulted in flex-
ural cracks over the bottom story. Major concrete spalling at both
boundary zones was recorded at the drift of 2.5%. The observed damage
mode of RW2 was flexure dominating.
SW33 was designed to investigate the effect of loading history and
repair methods on the RC wall. The height of the wall was 1300 mm,
and the cross-section was a 650 mm × 65 mm rectangle. The average
concrete compressive strength was 39.4 MPa. The yield strengths of ver-
tical, horizontal and hoop reinforcement were 470 MPa, 520 MPa, and
420 MPa, respectively. It was subjected to the horizontal cyclic load at
the top which was force-controlled before the yielding of the edge

Fig. 7. Comparison of lateral force versus strain of longitudinal reinforcement relationship between experimental and numerical results.
136 B. Wang et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 131 (2017) 132–143
Fig. 8. Dimensions and reinforcement details of SPRC shear wall specimens (unit: mm).
tensile reinforcement and then displacement-controlled. The specimen
failed in the flexure-shear mode.
SW1.5-2 was a SRC wall with channel-section steel embedded in the
boundary zones of the wall. The height of the wall was 1350 mm, and
the cross-section dimensions were 1000 mm × 150 mm. The average
concrete compressive strength was 37.5 MPa. The yield strengths of lon-
gitudinal reinforcement in boundary zones and the web, channel-sec-
tion steel, and hoop steel were 313 MPa, 380 MPa, 379 MPa, and
338 MPa, respectively. The axial load of 500 kN was applied at the top
of the wall. The cyclic horizontal load applied at the top was displace-
ment-controlled. The specimen failed in flexure-shear mode.
SPRCW1, SPRCW2, and SPRCW3 were the barbell-section walls de-
signed to investigate the compression-bending behavior of SPRC
walls. All design parameters were consistent among the three speci-
mens except for the axial compressive load ratio. The height of the spec-
imens was 2060 mm, and the cross-section dimensions of the web were
600 mm × 150 mm while the boundary section was 190 mm × 100 mm.
The average concrete compressive strength was 67.2 MPa. The yield
strengths of longitudinal reinforcement in boundary zones and the
web, I-section steel, and hoop steel were 436 MPa, 291 MPa, 334 MPa,
and 298 MPa, respectively. The yield strength of the embedded steel
plate was 309 MPa. The axial compressive loads acting on the top of
three specimens were 2180 kN, 2610 kN, and 3050 kN, respectively.
The cyclic horizontal load was force-controlled before the yielding of
the tensile longitudinal rebar in boundary element and then displace-
ment-controlled. All specimens failed in flexural-dominant mode.
Numerical models for the above specimens were set up. The consti-
tutive relationships of the steel and concrete were modelled according
to the actual material properties from the test results. The responses
of the specimens were obtained at each loading step. Fig. 6 shows the
comparison of the force-displacement hysteretic curve between the ex-
perimental and numerical results. The aspect ratio hw/lw is shown at the
up left of the figures, where hw is the height of the entire wall and lw is
the length of the wall in the direction of loading. In general, there are
good agreements between the experimental and numerical results.
Table 2
Material properties of steel.
Material Reinforcement area/steel thickness
Rebar of Ф6 28 mm2
Rebar of Ф10 79 mm2
Shape steel 4 mm
Steel plate 4.7 mm
The numerical models are able to capture the general hysteretic re-
sponses, including the lateral peak strength, strength degradation, and
stiffness deterioration. From the numerical simulation results it was
found that Specimens RW2, SPRCW1, SPRCW2, and SPRCW3 failed
with the crushing of the concrete in boundary elements with high stress
concentration while Specimens SW33 and SW1.5-2 failed firstly with
the crushing of the concrete of boundary elements, and then following
with yielding of the horizontal steel reinforcement in the web, which
conformed to the tested failure modes of each specimen. Comparisons
of the lateral force versus strain of longitudinal reinforcement relation-
ship between experimental (where measured strain data was available)
and numerical results for Specimen SW33 and SPRCW1 are presented in
Fig. 7, which shows good agreement for the two specimens until the
given maximum displacement. The analytical results reveal that the nu-
merical models are able to simulate the local responses as well as the
global responses.
3. Parametric study of SPRC shear walls
3.1. Design of reference specimen
To evaluate the seismic performance of SPRC shear walls, a reference
specimen was designed to represent typical parameters in engineering
application. The design parameters of boundary zones and wall web
were determined according to JGJ3-2010 and engineering practice.
Based on the validated numerical models for the above specimens of
SPRC walls, the overall dimensions and steel reinforcement details of
the reference specimen were designed similar to the specimens in
Jiang et al. [6], as shown in Fig. 8.
The compressive strength grade of concrete is C60 (the axial compres-
sive strength fc = 38.5 MPa). Four rebars with the diameter of 10 mm and
a shape steel with the dimensions of 40 mm × 40 mm × 4 mm were
placed in each boundary column. The volumetric ratio of the transverse
reinforcement in the boundary columns is 2.3%. The thickness of embed-
ded steel plate is 4.7 mm, corresponding to the steel plate ratio of 3%. The
Yielding strength (MPa) Ultimate strength (MPa) Young's modulus (MPa)
298 407 2.1 × 105
436 595 2.1 × 105
334 454 2.1 × 105
309 415 2.1 × 105
 B. Wang et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 131 (2017) 132–143 137

where N is the axial load applied on the specimen; fc, fsy and fpy denote
the axial compressive strength of the concrete, the yield strength of the
shape steel and the steel plate, respectively; and Ac, As and Ap are the
cross-sectional area of the concrete, the shape steel and the steel plate,
respectively. The prescribed value of axial compressive load ratio is
0.4, and the corresponding axial compressive load is 1880 kN based on
the Eq. (1).
It is noted that the design axial compressive load ratio specified in
JGJ3-2010 considers the load factor and material strength reduction fac-
tor in Eq. 1. A value of 1.2 was used for the load factor, and the material
strength reduction factors were 0.7 and 0.9 for the concrete and the
steel, respectively. A design axial load ratio of 0.4 was adopted in the
specimen, and the corresponding test axial compressive load ratio was
Fig. 9. Cyclic loading protocol. 0.25. In other words, the design axial load ratio was approximately 1.6
times the test axial load ratio.
The axial compressive load was exerted at the top of the specimens
firstly and kept constant throughout the entire loading process. Then
cyclic lateral load was applied at the top loading beam, with typical dis-
placement-control protocol shown in Fig. 9, which consists of three cy-
cles at each level with displacement amplitude increment of 5 mm until
failure.

3.2. Analysis of reference specimen

The cyclic behavior of the reference specimen was studied using the
validated numerical model. The element size in the numerical model is
400 mm, equal to one-half of the cross-sectional height of the shear
wall, which is the recommended value used to estimate the plastic
Fig. 10. Force-displacement hysteretic curves of reference specimen.
hinge length at the base of a wall [23]. The predicted force-displacement
hysteretic curve is shown in Fig. 10. To determine the likely failure mode
of the reference specimen, the flexural strength and shear strength were
estimated using the moment-curvature method and the equations
specified in JGJ3-2010, respectively. According to JGJ3-2010, the shear
strength of SPRC wall is the sum of the contribution from the concrete,
the steel reinforcement, the shape steel in boundary zones and the em-
bedded steel plate, as follows:
 
1 Aw A 0:3
V¼ 0:5f t bw hwo þ 0:13N þ f yv sh hwo þ f Aa1
λ−0:5 A s λ a
0:6
þ f Ap ð2Þ
λ−0:5 p

Fig. 11. Moment-curvature relationships for reference specimen.
reinforcement ratio of the vertical and horizontal distributed reinforce-
ment is 0.4%, which is the lower limit specified in JGJ3-2010. The material
properties of the steel are listed in Table 2.
The aspect ratio of the specimen is 3.5, that is, the clear height of wall
between the loading point and the base is 2800 mm. The specimen was
designed with flexure dominated behavior. The axial compressive load
ratio of SPRC shear walls is defined as follows:
N mum shear strength of the reference specimen based on Eq. (2) was
n¼
f c Ac þ f sy As þ f py Ap
where λ is the shear span ratio (1.5 ≤ λ ≤ 2.2); ft is the concrete tensile
strength (MPa); bw is the width of the wall web; hwo is the effective
depth of the wall; Aw is the area of the wall web; A is the gross cross-sec-
tion area; fyv is the yield strength of the transverse reinforcement; Ash is
the area of the transverse reinforcement; s is the spacing of the trans-
verse reinforcement; fa is the yield strength of the shape steel; Aa1 is
the area of the shape steel in a boundary column; fp is the yield strength
of the steel plate; Ap is the area of the steel plate; and N is the axial com-
pressive load (N ≤ 0.2fcbwhw).
Fig. 11 presents the moment-curvature relationships for the refer-
ence specimen. The shear force corresponding to the flexural strength
was 317.2 kN, which ignored the flexure-shear interaction. The maxi-
ð1Þ
650.4 kN. The reference specimen was determined to be flexure-critical

Table 3
Range of parameters of numerical models.

Parameter Range of value Base value Specimen no.

Steel plate ratio (%) 1– 7 3 SPRCW-S1 ~ SPRCW-S7

Axial compressive load ratio 0.3– 0.6 0.4 SPRCW-n0.3 ~ SPRCW-n0.6
Concrete compressive strength fcu (MPa) 50– 80 60 SPRCW-C50 ~ SPRCW-C80
Web reinforcement ratio (%) 0.2– 0.8 0.4 SPRCW-ρ0.2 ~ SPRCW-ρ0.8

Note: The SPRCW-S3, SPRCW-n0.4, SPRCW-C60 and SPRCW-ρ0.4 are the same specimen, which are the above-mentioned reference specimen.
138 B. Wang et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 131 (2017) 132–143
Fig. 12. Force-displacement hysteretic curves of specimens with different steel plate ratio.
Fig. 13. Force-displacement skeleton curves of specimens with different steel plate ratio.
accordingly. The shear strength was approximately 2.1 times the shear
force corresponding to its flexural strength. The peak load in the hyster-
etic curve shows good agreement with the estimated shear force ac-
cording to the moment-curvature relationship.
3.3. Parametric study
The extensive parametric study was carried out to examine the ef-
fect of several parameters on the seismic performance of the SPRC
shear wall. Four parameters were considered in the study: the steel
plate ratio, the axial compressive load ratio, the concrete strength, and
the web reinforcement ratio (including vertical and horizontal rein-
forcement ratio). The parameters of the reference specimen are taken
as the base value. The ranges of the above four parameters are given
in Table 3, which were selected according to the engineering practice
and design code recommendations. All of specimens were applied the
same axial compressive load except the group of axial compressive
load ratio.
Fig. 14. Force-displacement relationships for individual RC wall and steel plate.
3.4. Parametric analysis results
3.4.1. Effect of steel plate ratio
The comparison of force-displacement hysteretic curves and skele-
ton curves for specimens with different steel plate ratio are shown in
Figs. 12 and 13. It can be found that the embedded steel plate is effective
in enhancing the load-carrying capacity and deformation capacity of
SPRC shear walls. Compared with SPRCW-S1, SPRCW-S3 achieves
19.6% increase and SPRCW-S7 achieves 51.9% increase in the peak
strength. Meanwhile, the deformation capacity is also improved obvi-
ously with the increase of the steel plate ratio. To evaluate the specimen
ductility (μ = Δu/Δy), the yielding displacement (Δy) is defined as the
displacement at the point where the secant stiffness line at 75% of the
peak strength intersects the horizontal line corresponding to the peak
strength [24]. The ultimate displacement is defined as the displacement
at the point where the load-carrying capacity reduces by 15% of the peak
strength. The corresponding yield point and ultimate point are also
marked in the skeleton curves, as shown in Fig. 13.
Force-displacement relationships of individual RC wall and steel
plate in SPRCW-S1, SPRCW-S3 (reference specimen) and SPRCW-S7
are shown in Fig. 14. With the increase of the steel plate ratio, the con-
tribution of the steel plate increases significantly during the whole load-
ing process, especially in the later loading stage. The variation of
individual proportion of the load carried by the RC wall and the steel
plate is shown in Fig. 15. In general, the RC wall carries most of the
load in the initial loading stage. With the increase of the displacement,
the RC wall damages gradually under cyclic loading and the originally
carried load will be transferred to the steel plate, which causes increased
proportion of load carried by the embedded steel plate in the subse-
quent loading, particularly after the peak load stage. With the increase
of the steel plate ratio, the proportion of load carried by the steel plate
is increased significantly. When the loading reaches the peak load
stage, the proportions of load carried by steel plate in SPRCW-S1,
SPRCW-S3 and SPRCW-S7 are 9.8%, 24.6%, and 45.7%, respectively.
 B. Wang et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 131 (2017) 132–143 139

Fig. 15. Individual proportion of load carried by RC wall and steel plate.

This further explains that the SPRC wall has a relatively high load-carry-
ing capacity in the later loading stage, which is different from the con-
ventional RC wall that is prone to lose strength under severe
earthquakes.
Table 4 lists the yield displacement (Δy), ultimate displacement
(Δu), ductility ratio (μ) and the ultimate drift ratio (θu) of the four spec-
imens. The ultimate drift ratio is calculated as θu = Δu/hw (hw =
2800 mm). Since increasing the steel plate ratio will both increase the
yield displacement and ultimate displacement of the specimens, the
rule of the variation of the ductility ratio with the increase of the steel
plate ratio is not clear. However, the ultimate deformation capacity in-
creases clearly.
3.4.2. Effect of axial compressive load ratio
The comparisons of force-displacement hysteretic curves and skele-
ton curves with different axial compressive load ratio are presented in
Figs. 16 and 17. It can be seen that the axial compressive load ratio has
significant effect on the hysteretic behavior and deformation capacity.
The effect of the axial compressive load ratio on the carrying capacity
is not significant, but the effect on the strength degradation after the
peak load is considerate.
Force-displacement relationships of individual RC wall and steel
plate in SPRCW-n0.3 and SPRCW-n0.6 are shown in Fig. 18. With the
increase of the axial compressive load ratio, the strength contributed
by the RC wall deteriorates under cyclic loading. The variation of indi-
vidual proportion of load carried by RC wall and steel plate is shown
in Fig. 19. The results demonstrate that for SPRCW-n0.3the portion of
the load carried by the RC wall is stable from the yield stage to peak
strength stage, but for SPRCW-n0.6 with higher compressive load ratio
the portion decreases significant.
Table 5 lists the deformation capacity and ductility of specimens
with different axial compressive load ratio. With the increase of axial
compressive load ratio, the deformation capacity and corresponding
ductility ratio decrease obviously. SPRCW-n0.3 has a high ductility
ratio value of 3.5 and the ultimate drift ratio is 1/63, but SPRCW-n0.6
has a relatively low ductility ratio value of 2.4 and the ultimate drift
ratio is 1/113.
3.4.3. Effect of concrete strength
The comparison of force-displacement hysteretic curves and skele-
ton curves with different concrete strength are shown in Figs. 20 and
21. The results show that concrete strength has an obvious effect on

Table 4
Deformation capacity and ductility of specimens with different steel plate ratio.

Specimens no. Yield disp. Ultimate disp. Δu Ductility Ultimate drift

Δy (mm) (mm) ratio μ ratio θu

SPRCW-S1 10.2 31.9 3.1 1/88

SPRCW-S3 12.1 34.1 2.8 1/82
SPRCW-S5 13.2 36.7 2.8 1/76
Fig. 17. Force-displacement skeleton curves of specimens with different axial compressive
SPRCW-S7 14.1 43.7 2.8 1/64
load ratio.

Fig. 16. Force-displacement hysteretic curves of specimens with different axial compressive load ratio.
140 B. Wang et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 131 (2017) 132–143

Fig. 18. Force-displacement relationships for individual RC wall and steel plate.

Fig. 19. Individual proportion of load carried by RC wall and steel plate.

Table 5 increase of the concrete strength, the RC wall of SPRCW-C80 undertakes

Deformation capacity and ductility of specimens with different axial compressive load more force than that of SPRCW-C50. The similar result can also be
ratio.
shown in the variation of individual proportion of load carried by RC
Specimens no. Yield disp. Δy Ultimate disp. Ductility Ultimate drift wall and steel plate in Fig. 23. When the loading reaches the peak
(mm) Δu s (mm) ratio μ ratio θu strength stage, the proportions of load carried by RC wall in SPRCW-
SPRCW-n0.3 12.7 44.3 3.5 1/63 C50, SPRCW-C60 and SPRCW-C80 are 71.5%, 75.4%, and 78.5%,
SPRCW-n0.4 12.1 34.1 2.8 1/82 respectively.
SPRCW-n0.5 11.0 28.6 2.6 1/98 Table 6 lists the deformation capacity and ductility of specimens
SPRCW-n0.6 10.3 24.8 2.4 1/113
with different concrete strength. With the increase of concrete strength,
the deformation capacity and corresponding ductility ratio increase ob-
viously. The ductility ratio and the ultimate drift ratio of SPRCW-C80 are
the hysteretic curves and deformation capacity. This mainly attributes 3.2 and 1/75, which increase by 33.3% and 28.0% compared with
to the reason that increasing concrete strength essentially reduces the SPRCW-C50.
axial compressive load ratio of the specimen. Compared with the peak
strength of SPRCW-C50, SPRCW-C60 achieves 8.1% increase and 3.4.4. Effect of web reinforcement ratio
SPRCW-C80 achieves 20.5% increase. The comparison of force-displacement hysteretic curves and
Force-displacement relationships of individual RC wall and steel skeleton curves with different web reinforcement ratio are shown
plate in SPRCW-C50 and SPRCW-C80 are shown in Fig. 22. With the in Figs. 24 and 25. It is indicated that the web reinforcement ratio

Fig. 20. Force-displacement hysteretic curves of specimens with different concrete strength.
 B. Wang et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 131 (2017) 132–143 141

Table 6
Deformation capacity and ductility of specimens with different concrete strength.

Specimens No. Yield disp. Δy Ultimate disp. Ductility Ultimate drift

(mm) Δu (mm) ratio μ ratioθu

SPRCW-C50 12.0 29.2 2.4 1/96

SPRCW-C60 12.1 34.1 2.8 1/82
SPRCW-C70 11.9 34.7 2.9 1/81
SPRCW-C80 11.6 37.1 3.2 1/75

Table 7 lists the deformation capacity and ductility of specimens

Fig. 21. Force-displacement skeleton curves of specimens with different concrete strength.
for SPRC shear wall, including vertical and horizontal reinforcement
ratio, has the negligible effect on the load-carrying capacity and
post-peak behavior. Force-displacement relationships of individual
RC wall and steel plate in SPRCW-ρ0.2 and SPRCW-ρ0.8 are shown
in Fig. 26. The load-carrying capacities contributed by the RC wall
and the steel plate are almost identical for different specimens in
the whole loading process. It is also shown in the variation of individ-
ual proportion of the load carried by RC wall and steel plate in Fig. 27.
This phenomenon is mainly attributed to the flexural failure mode of
the SPRC shear wall, whose hysteretic behavior mainly depends on
the properties of boundary columns and embedded steel plate. Com-
pared to the ratio of steel plate, distributed web reinforcement with a
relatively low ratio has little influence on the flexural capacity of the
SPRC shear wall. The main role of the web reinforcement ratio in
SPRC shear wall is to restrain shrinkage and temperature stress.
Meanwhile, it will provide lateral support to embedded steel plate
during the whole loading process. If reasonable measures coordinate
the relative deformation between the concrete and steel plate in the
whole cyclic loading, there is no need to increase the web reinforce-
ment ratio in SPRC shear wall.
with different web reinforcement ratio. The web reinforcement ratio
for SPRC shear wall has the negligible effect on the ductility ratio and ul-
timate deformation capacity due to the flexure damage mode.
4. Conclusions
The application of the SPRC shear wall in China Mainland is briefly
introduced. The numerical model with the aid of the software OpenSees
was developed to simulate its hysteretic behavior, which was validated
by typical experimental results. The parametric study was carried out
with respect to a number of important parameters, including the steel
plate ratio, the axial compressive load ratio, the concrete strength and
the web reinforcement ratio. The following conclusions are drawn
from this study:
1. With the increase of the steel plate ratio, the load-carrying
capacity and the deformation capacity of the SPRC shear wall
rise up significantly. The contribution of the steel plate becomes
more remarkable with the increase of the displacement, espe-
cially after the peak load, which is different from the conven-
tional RC wall and is beneficial to the structure under severe
earthquakes.

Fig. 22. Force-displacement relationships for individual RC wall and steel plate.

Fig. 23. Individual proportion of load carried by RC wall and steel plate.
142 B. Wang et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 131 (2017) 132–143

Fig. 24. Force-displacement hysteretic curves of specimens with different web reinforcement ratio.

has the negative impact on the seismic behavior of the SPRC

Fig. 25. Force-displacement skeleton curves of specimens with different web
reinforcement ratio.
2. The axial compressive load ratio has obvious effect on the
hysteretic behavior and ductility of the SPRC shear wall. As ex-
pected, the study shows that high axial compressive load ratio
shear wall.
3. Within the maximum allowable limit of concrete strength, high
concrete strength has obvious effect on the hysteretic curves and defor-
mation capacity of SPRC shear wall. This is mainly attributed to the rea-
son that increasing concrete strength essentially reduces the axial
compressive load ratio.
4. The web reinforcement ratio, including vertical and horizontal re-
inforcement ratio, has negligible effect on the hysteretic behavior of
SPRC shear wall. The main role of the web reinforcement ratio in SPRC
shear wall is to restrain shrinkage and temperature stress. Meanwhile,
it will provide lateral support to embedded steel plate during the
whole loading process. If reasonable measures coordinate the relative
deformation between the concrete and steel plate in the whole cyclic
loading, there is no need to increase the web reinforcement ratio in
SPRC shear wall.
This paper presented herein focused on the SPRC shear walls with
high aspect ratios and flexure-dominated behavior. It should be

Fig. 26. Force-displacement relationships for individual RC wall and steel plate.

Fig. 27. Individual proportion of load carried by RC wall and steel plate.
 B. Wang et al. / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 131 (2017) 132–143 143

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