Theoretical and Parametric Studies on the Lateral-Resistant Performance of the Steel Grid Shear Wall

This study investigates a novel steel grid shear wall (SGSW) structure with lightweight and discrete lateral-resistance members, focusing on its structural behavior in lateral resistance. By comparing the characteristics of the thin steel plate shear wall, the mechanism of the steel grid components in both the tension zone and compression zone was briefly described. The formulas of lateral-resistant capacity and initial stiffness of the SGSW were derived through the static equilibrium method. Then, the influence laws of the span–height ratio, steel member spacing and section size of the steel members on the lateral-resistant performance of the SGSW were determined through a parametric analysis. In addition, the accuracy of the calculation formula was validated. The results showed that the strains of the steel grid components in different positions were all the same when the bending stiffnesses of the edge members were significantly large. The lateral-resistance capacity of the SGSW increased with the span-to-height ratio, while it decreased as the spacing between the steel components increased. Compared with the effects of web height, web thickness and flange width, increasing the flange thickness exhibited the best effects on improving the lateral capacity. As the flange thickness increased from 7 mm to 13 mm, the lateral-resistant capacity showed an improvement of 35.45%. Additionally, the formula derived in this study demonstrated high accuracy and reliability, with the error not exceeding 8% between the formula calculation and the simulation results.