Investigating Lateral Behavior of the Hybrid System of Flat Steel Shear Walls and Cold-Formed S-shaped Steel Plate Dampers Under Cyclic Loading

This study investigates the performance of a steel shear wall system equipped with S-shaped dampers as a novel lateral load-bearing system under cyclic loading. To achieve this, a previously tested flat steel shear wall and an S-shaped damper were verified as control models using the Finite Element Method (FEM). The damper was then connected to the shear wall following the proposed methodology. Given that the characteristics of both the damper and the wall affect the nonlinear cyclic behavior of the hybrid system, various parameters were investigated, including the arrangement, number, and thickness of the dampers, as well as their impact on hysteresis behavior, maximum strength, initial stiffness, equivalent viscous damping, and the formation of tensile fields. The results demonstrated that the addition of dampers reduced plastic strain in the boundary elements, particularly in the columns. However, the maximum lateral strength of the shear walls equipped with dampers was 14.3% to 44.5% lower than that of the control wall, depending on the damper configuration. Additionally, the study revealed that the equivalent viscous damping in walls with dampers ranged from 34.91% to 39.76%, compared to 33.11% for the control wall. Overall, including dampers increased the equivalent viscous damping by an average of 13.9%.