Double-steel plate concrete composite shear walls are being used for nuclear plants and high-rise buildings. They consist of thick concrete walls, exterior steel faceplates serving as reinforcement and shear connectors, which guarantee the composite action between the two different materials. Several researchers have used the Finite Element Method to investigate the behaviour of double-steel plate concrete walls. The majority of them model every element explicitly leading to a rather time-consuming solution, which cannot be easily used for design purposes. In the present paper, the main objective is the introduction of a three-dimensional finite element model, which can efficiently predict the overall performance of a double-steel plate concrete wall in terms of accuracy and time saving. At first, empirical formulations and design relations established in current design codes for shear connectors are evaluated. Then, a simplified finite element model is used to investigate the nonlinear response of composite walls. The developed model is validated using results from tests reported in the literature in terms of axial compression and monotonic, cyclic in-plane shear loading. Several finite element modelling issues related to potential convergence problems, loading strategies and computer efficiency are also discussed. The accuracy and simplicity of the proposed model make it suitable for further numerical studies on the shear connection behaviour at the steel-concrete interface.

Double-steel plate concrete (SC) composite shear walls are a structural system intensively used in nuclear facilities due to its exceptional performance. It consists of a concrete core with exterior steel faceplates serving as reinforcement. These steel faceplates are anchored to the concrete infill using headed steel studs which guarantee the composite action between the two different materials. The focus of this research is the investigation of the seismic performance of rectangular SC composite shear walls for application to buildings. A simple and cost-efficient form of the SC wall is proposed based on the research conducted by Vazouras and Avdelas [1]. Its efficiency has been proved through extensive numerical analysis using a simplified finite element model developed in ANSYS [2] to simulate the nonlinear cyclic response of SC walls. The accuracy of the developed numerical model was validated using experimental data reported in the literature [3,4]. The numerical predictions included global force-displacement responses, strain and stress distributions on each material and damage to the steel plates and concrete. A typical damage pattern of the SC walls included yielding, local buckling and tearing of the steel plates in conjunction with cracking and crushing of the infill concrete. The impact of various parameters on the in-plane response of SC walls has been investigated including wall aspect ratio, reinforcement ratio, slenderness ratio, wall thickness, yield strength of the steel plates and uniaxial compressive strength of concrete.