Study on steel plate shear walls with diagonal stiffeners by cross brace-strip model

Steel plate shear walls (SPSWs) are commonly utilized to provide lateral stiffness in high-rise structures. The simplified model is frequently used instead of the fine-scale model in the design of buildings with SPSWs. To predict the lateral strength of steel plate shear walls with diagonal stiffeners (DS-SPSWs), a simplified model is presented, namely the cross bracestrip model (CBSM). The bearing capacity and internal forces of columns for DS-SPSWs are calculated. In addition, a modification coefficient is introduced to account for the shear action of the thin plate. The feasibility of the CBSM is validated by comparing the numerical results with theoretical and experimental results. The numerical results from the CBSM and finescale model, which represent the bearing capacity of the DS-SPSW with varied stiffened plate dimensions, are in good accord with the theoretical values. The difference in bearing capacity between the CBSM and the fine-scale model is less than 1.35%. The errors of the bearing capacity from the CBSM are less than 5.67% when compared to the test results of the DS-SPSW. Furthermore, the shear and axial forces of CBSM agree with the results of the fine-scale model and theoretical analysis. As a result, the CBSM, which reflects the contribution of diagonal stiffeners to the lateral resistance of the SPSW as well as the effects on the shear and axial forces of the columns, can significantly improve the design accuracy and efficiency of buildings with DS-SPSWs.