Cyclic inelastic in-plane behavior of Concrete Filled Steel Sandwich Panel Walls

The cyclic inelastic in-plane behavior of Concrete Filled Steel Sandwich Panel Walls (CFSSP-Walls), composed of double skin steel plates inter-connected through seamless tie-bars welded to the steel plates, was investigated through large-scale experiments and finite-element analysis. These walls are meant to be used where there is relatively large demand on the lateral load resisting system as they could offer ductile behavior while providing reduced cross section total thickness and fast constructability compared to other systems. Four large scale CFSSP-Wall specimens, with and without boundary elements, were tested under quasi-static cyclic loading to investigate the seismic behavior of this type of structural system. The tested walls had an aspect ratio (height to depth ratios) of roughly 2.5 and were able to develop their plastic moment capacity and undergo large drifts prior to buckling of the steel skin plate. Ultimate failure mode was fracture of the skin plates, starting from the tie-bar to steel plate interaction; yet, the tested specimens were able to sustain their flexural capacity up to drifts in excess of 3% and exhibited significantly ductile behavior.