HCWs with Replaceable Shear Links: Experimental Input and Seismic Performance of a Multi-Story Building

Abstract

As recent research findings evidenced a significant potential of the steel-concrete hybrid coupled wall (HCW) systems, further research activities are still needed for addressing particular issues and for developing advancements in the analysis, design, and detailing. These aspects have been addressedwithin the European research project "HYCAD", which also represented the research framework of the current study. The first step of the studywas represented by the development of a technical solution for connecting the replaceable dissipative shear links to the steel-concrete composite wall, while the second step consisted of experimental and numerical validation. Based on experimental and numerical outcomes (i.e., component level tests and FEM/FEA), the current paper investigates the behavior and the seismic performance of a newly introduced steel-concrete HCW system. In particular, a case-study was carried out on a 3D multi-story building structure with perimeter lateral load resisting frames, each composed of: (i) a HCW, i.e. a steel-concrete compositewall coupled to steel columns through a set of replaceable steel shear links; (ii) a moment resisting frame (MRF). Alongside an introduction and a description of the case-study structural system, the current paper makes an overview of the following: (i) experimental validation of the proposed technical solution (i.e., replaceable shear link to composite wall connection); (ii) simplified numerical modeling procedure of the shear links; (iii) seismic performance of the 3D multi-story building based on nonlinear static and dynamic analyses; (iv) main conclusions.