Steel plate shear walls are not plate girders

The use of steel plate shear walls (SPSW) for lateral load resisting system in both new and retrofit construction was discussed. The development of a diagonal tension field were similar to vertical plate grinders in a qualitative manner only. It was observed that the vertical boundary elements of a SPSW were similar to the flanges of a plate grinder. The plate grinder flanges were typically plates with little in-plane bending stiffness, the vertical boundary elements of a SPSW had wide flage shapes or hollow structural sections. The results show that plate grinder shear strength equations underestimate the strength of SPSW.