Capacity design of boundary elements of beam-connected buckling restrained steel plate shear wall

As a lateral load resisting component, buckling restrained steel plate shear walls (BRW) have excellent energy dissipating capacity. Similar to thin steel plate shear walls, the mechanical behavior of BRWs depends on the boundary elements (adjacent beams and columns) which need adequate strength and stiffness to ensure the complete yielding of BRWs and the emergence of expected plastic collapse mechanism of frame. This paper presents a theoretical approach to estimate the design forces for boundary elements of beam-connected BRW (i.e., The BRW is only connected to beams at its top and bottom, without connections to columns) using a fundamental plastic collapse mechanism of frame, a force transferring model of beam-connected BRW and linear beam and column analysis. Furthermore, the design method of boundary beams and columns is presented. The proposed approach does not involve nonlinear analyses, which can be easily and efficiently used to estimate the design forces of beams and columns in a frame with BRWs. The predicted design forces of boundary elements are compared with those from nonlinear finite element analyses, and a good agreement is achieved.