SPSW-WC Test Completed

Large-scale testing of a steel plate shear wall with coupling (SPSW-WC) was recently conducted by PhD candidate Dan Borello and Prof. Larry Fahnestock in the NEES@Illinois MUST-SIM facility at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  This test specimen, called FLEX due to flexural yielding coupling beams, represented the bottom three stories of a six-story building, and it exhibited robust ductile performance with significant energy dissipation realized through web plate yielding and plastic hinging in the coupling beams and horizontal boundary elements.  This testing is part of the NSF-supported NEES research project (CMMI 0830294) NEESR: Smart and Resilient Steel Plate Shear Walls headed by PI Jeffrey Berman and co-PIs Laura Lowes (University of Washington),  Michel Bruneau (University of Buffalo, SUNY) and Larry Fahnestock (University of Illinois).  Steel for test specimens was provided by AISC.  Testing of the second specimen, which is more heavily coupled and will have combined flexural/shear yielding in the coupling beams, will occur in December.

SPSW-WC FLEX at -4% Top Drift

SPSW-WC FLEX Base Shear vs. Top Drift