Connection of infill panels in steel plate shear walls

Steel plate shear walls are a very ductile and stable lateral force-resisting system. The ability of a steel plate shear wall to resist effectively lateral loads on a structure--such as wind loading and earthquake loading--will depend in part on the transfer of forces from the infill panel to the beams and the columns. This is especially critical in unstiffened steel plate shear walls, where the development of a tension field within a shear panel requires proper anchorage of the infill plate.; Four different infill panel connection details were tested in order to examine and compare their response to quasi-static cyclic loading. The load versus displacement response of the details showed gradual and stable deterioration at higher loads. The formation of tears in the connection details did not result in a loss of load-carrying capacity. In addition to the experimental program, a finite element model was developed to predict the behaviour of one of the infill plate corner connection specimens. Results from the analysis showed that the finite element method can be used to predict reliably the load versus displacement behaviour of an infill panel-to-boundary member arrangement.