Investigation of the fire effect on the behavior of corrugated steel plate shear walls considering environmental aspects

Abstract

Fire can be an adverse event with tangible costs for property and human life. In addition to its physical costs, fire has a range of obvious adverse consequences on the environment. One of the fire’s adverse outcomes is its effect on the structures. Corrugated Steel Plate Shear Walls (SPSWs) are environmentally friendly since they can be manufactured in the factory, reducing the environmental disturbance around the construction site, and also, they can be easily dismounted and recycled. In this paper, the effect of fire on the behavior of corrugated SPSWs was investigated numerically and parametrically. In so doing, the hysteresis of the system before (at the ambient temperature) and after applying the fire was investigated. For the parametrical study, the effect of the thickness (t) and the length-to-height ratio (ω=L/H) of the infill plate were investigated on the ultimate strength, stiffness, and yielding of the corrugated SPSW system. The finite element (FE) results showed that by increasing the thickness as well as the length-to-height ratio, the behavior of the corrugated SPSWs was improved. Also, the results indicated that fire affects the ultimate strength, yielding over the wall and hysteresis curve; additionally, the stiffness is affected by the fire. It was proposed to account for the fire by applying the reduction factor of 0.4 to the ultimate strength.