Experimental Test, Analysis, and Design of High-Strength SC Walls Subjected to Axial Compression

The current AISC specification (AISC 360-22) does not permit using high-strength materials in steel plate-concrete composite (SC) walls due to limited research. This paper uses three steps to address this. In the first step, experimental tests on 13 high-strength SC walls are conducted. The test parameters are stud spacing, thickness of steel plate, yield stress of steel, and compressive strength of concrete. Results from the tests indicate that the axial compressive strength of SC walls increases when the material strength increases or when the slenderness ratio (i.e., ratio of the stud spacing to the thickness of steel faceplate) decreases. In the second step, finite element (FE) models are developed and benchmarked. Parametric studies are then conducted to further validate the findings from the tests and to develop effective stress–strain relationships for the steel faceplate. The resulting effective stress–strain relationship can be used in fiber-based analysis programs for better accuracy, since it implicitly accounts for the influence of local buckling and yielding. Finally, the effective stress–strain relationship is used to revise the equation in AISC 360-22. The accuracy of the revised equation is verified using results from both the experimental tests and FE parametric studies.