Self-Centering Steel–Timber Hybrid Shear Wall: Experimental Test and Parametric Analysis

Abstract

Due to timber material’s environmental benefits and satisfactory structural properties, the studies on providing solutions to the application of timber to mid-rise or even high-rise buildings have been recently increasing. Among them, the steel–timber hybrid shear wall (STHSW) is one of the promising lateral resisting systems. However, the application of the system is limited because of its unsatisfactory earthquake resilience. In this paper, a new system, self-centering (SC)-STHSW, is proposed by introducing post-tensioned (PT) technology into the STHSW system. The cyclic loading test of one full-scale SC-STHSW specimen was conducted. The new system was proved to have both satisfactory self-centering capacity and the sufficient energy dissipation. Within the OpenSees platform, a numerical model was developed and validated by the experiment result. The model was further used in the parametric analysis. The system’s self-centering capacity, energy dissipation performance and the ultimate strength were evaluated under multiple parameters. The parameters included the initial PT stress ratio, the relative value of the damper’s activation force, the wood shear wall’s resistance, the beam section height and the wood shear wall’s strength. The lateral wall-to-frame stiffness ratio was also considered. Each parameter’s effects on three different performances of the system were analyzed. Based on the analysis results, a design parameter, a self-centering ratio, was proposed. The ratio was suggested to be larger than 0.5 to ensure a favorable self-centering performance in the system. This study provides support to the application of the innovative steel–timber hybrid structural system in practical engineering.

Innovative Structural Systems for Timber Buildings: A Comprehensive Review of Contemporary Solutions

“…Unfortunately, the wall elements are not load-resisting enough for high-rise timber-based buildings, especially for those located in seismically more active areas. Thus, further study on such a steel-timber hybrid shear wall (STHSW) system in terms of better energy dissipation was carried out in [57]. In this study, a new system, i.e., self-centering (SC)-STHSW, is proposed by introducing post-tensioned (PT) technology into the previously developed STHSW system.…”

The wall–frame interaction effect in CLT-steel hybrid systems

“…Moreover, a hybrid wall system consisting of a light-frame wood shear wall and steel frame was tested by (He et al, 2014). The aforementioned tested hybrid system was numerically investigated by (Li et al, 2014), and further developed with a post-tensioned steel frame and light frame wood shear wall by (Cui et al, 2020). Recently, a hybrid system composed of steel frames with semirigid connections and CLT shear walls was designed and analyzed by the authors (Vogiatzis et al, 2019), although the post-elastic phase was not considered in that work.…”