Thin-Walled Structures 95 (2015) 3139

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Thin-Walled Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tws

Elastic buckling behavior of steel trapezoidal corrugated shear walls

with vertical stiffeners
Jing-Zhong Tong n, Yan-Lin Guo
Department of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper investigates the elastic buckling behavior of steel trapezoidal corrugated shear walls (STCSWs)
Received 14 April 2015 with vertical stiffeners. On the basis of an orthotropic plate model, by utilizing the theorem of minimum
Received in revised form potential energy and the Ritz method, the buckling loads of stiffened STCSWs can be precisely calculated
3 June 2015
using MATLAB. Then, a value of transition rigidity of stiffener is suggested and, hence formulas of elastic
Accepted 14 June 2015
Available online 25 June 2015
buckling coefcients of stiffened STCSWs are proposed. Finally, the verication of proposed formulas
using a FE model shows that the formulas are validated and applicable in estimating the elastic buckling
Keywords: loads of stiffened STCSWs.
Steel trapezoidal corrugated shear walls & 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Multi-storey frames
High-rise buildings
Vertical stiffeners
Elastic buckling coefcient
Formulas

1. Introduction
Steel plate shear walls (SPSWs) have been widely used in a
number of high-rise buildings as lateral force resistance systems.
Replacing the inll steel plates of SPSWs with trapezoidal corru-
gated panels can be a signicant improvement, then forming the
steel trapezoidal corrugated shear walls (STCSWs). STCSWs have
several signicant advantages over SPSWs as follows: (1) The
bending rigidity of steel plate is greatly increased due to corru-
gation sections and, accordingly, the shear buckling strength of
STCSW is signicantly increased even without changing the
thickness of plate, and (2) in STCSWs with their corrugations laid
horizontally, on which this paper focuses, vertical loads trans-
mitted from upper structures can be effectively released to make
sure that the inll panels are loaded by pure shear loads and,
hence, avoid the reduction of the shear-carrying capacity of
STCSWs.
STCSWs can be applied to multi-storey frames and high-rise
buildings, serving not only as lateral force resistance systems, but
also as energy-dissipation systems (Fig. 1). The inll corrugated
panel is usually welded to surrounding frame beams and columns.
The corrugations of inll panels have a variety of shapes, as shown
in Fig. 2.
In practical structures, the width of inll panel is usually much
n
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: tjz13@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn (J.-Z. Tong).
larger than its height, especially in some long-span frame struc-
tures. So the shear buckling strength of STCSW can be largely in-
creased by simply adding vertical stiffeners to the inll corrugated
panel. Generally, the vertical stiffeners are symmetrically arranged
on both sides of the corrugated panel and fastened to the panel
with high-strength bolts. As mentioned above, the STCSWs with
horizontally laid corrugations can release vertical loads efciently,
thus can be assumed to be loaded by pure in-plane shear forces
with negligible discrepancy.
In stiffened STCSWs, the inll corrugated panel is divided into
several horizontally aligned sub-panels by vertical stiffeners. The
stiffeners constrain the out-of-plane deformation of inll panel,
yet shear forces can be transmitted between adjacent sub-panels.
Under these conditions, three different buckling modes of the
stiffened STCSWs possibly occur. First, the inll corrugated panel
can be regarded as an assembly of a number of long plates with
small width, and if the width-to-thickness ratios of these long
plates are too large, a local buckling occurs, as shown in Fig. 3(a),
in which a number of buckled waves appear separately within
those long narrow plates. Yet, this type of buckling mode usually
corresponds to low load-carrying capacity and can be effectively
avoided by using some specic shapes of corrugations, which is
also highly recommended in practical designs. Second, if the
bending stiffness of vertical stiffeners is small and thus unable to
constrain the out-of-plane deformation of inll plate effectively, an
overall buckling occurs, as shown in Fig. 3(b), in which several
diagonal buckled waves appear across these vertical stiffeners.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tws.2015.06.005
0263-8231/& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
32 J.-Z. Tong, Y.-L. Guo / Thin-Walled Structures 95 (2015) 3139

Fig. 1. Typical multi-storey frame structure using STCSWs.

Fig. 2. Typical corrugation cross-sections.

Third, a sub-panel buckling [Fig. 3(c)] occurs if the stiffness of

vertical stiffeners is big enough to constrain the out-of-plane de-
formation of inll panel at the location of stiffeners and make the
buckled waves separated in different sub-panels. When a sub-
panel buckling occurs, it means that the vertical stiffeners exceed
their transition rigidity.
In order to propose a design method of stiffened STCSWs which
is applicable to both overall buckling and sub-panel buckling
components, the STCSWs need to be classied in terms of different
buckling modes. Therefore, it is essential to get the value of
transition rigidity of vertical stiffeners. Besides, in designing stif-
fened STCSWs, the determination of the elastic buckling loads of
stiffened STCSWs is of practical importance since: (1) For some
light-gage steel corrugated shear walls which is thin and exible
enough, the elastic buckling loads usually represent the load-car-
rying capacity of them, and (2) if the steel corrugated shear walls
are getting larger in thickness, plastic behaviors of plate elements
are involved. In this situation, the elastic buckling load can be
directly used in calculation of the relative slenderness, which is an
important parameter in the design of these shear walls.
Several theoretical investigations about unstiffened STCSWs
loaded by pure in-plane shear forces have been performed. Using
the model of orthotropic plates, Bergmann and Reissner [1], Hla-
vacek [2], Easley and McFarland [3,4] derived three different types
of elastic buckling formulas of unstiffened corrugated shear walls
respectively. Among them, EasleyMcFarland formulas and Berg-
mannReissner formulas were agreed reasonably well with some
experimental results [47]. Nie and Tang [8] made references to
the EasleyMcFarland formulas [3,4] and proposed the formulas of Fig. 3. Buckling modes of stiffened STCSWs.
elastic buckling coefcients considering different boundary con-
ditions of the corrugated steel plate shear walls. Besides, several This paper investigates the elastic buckling behavior of STCSWs
tests of corrugated shear walls are carried out by Stojadinovic and with vertical stiffeners loaded by pure in-plane shear forces.
Tipping [9]. Furthermore, the cyclic behavior of corrugated shear Firstly, a theoretical model is built which contains an orthotropic
walls is also studied [1012], and several experimental studies on plate with elastically torsional restrained edges. On the basis of
were undertook to determine the earthquake performance of this model, by utilizing the theorem of minimum potential energy
house structures with cold-formed steel shear panels [1315]. As and the Ritz method which includes two different types of as-
presented above, a number of literatures about unstiffened sumed displacement shape functions [16], the buckling formulas
STCSWs have been published. However, there is still little relevant of unstiffened STCSWs are derived and the corresponding buckling
research about stiffened STCSWs. loads of stiffened STCSWs can be precisely calculated using
 J.-Z. Tong, Y.-L. Guo / Thin-Walled Structures 95 (2015) 3139 33

mathematical program MATLAB [17]. Secondly, a value of the

transition rigidity of vertical stiffeners is found from MATLAB re-
sults, and the formulas of elastic buckling coefcient of stiffened
STCSWs are proposed. Finally, a nite element model using the
commercial program ANSYS [18] is constructed to verify the pro-
posed formulas. The results obtained show that the proposed
formulas are validated and suitable in estimating the elastic
buckling load of stiffened STCSWs.

2. Theoretical analysis Fig. 5. Geometry of one repeating corrugation section.

2.1. Orthotropic model of STCSWs
Most corrugated panels can be recognized as thin orthotropic
plates of uniform thickness [19,20] since: (1) because the local
buckling mode is avoided by using specic shapes of inll panels,
only the overall buckling and sub-panel buckling, which are both
slightly affected by local shape of corrugations, may occur, and
(2) dimensions of repeating corrugation sections are small com-
pared to the overall dimension of inll corrugated panel.
A typical corrugated shear wall is loaded by pure in-plane shear
loads, as shown in Fig. 4, and a element is isolated from it.
The bending moments per unit length Mx, My are related to the
curvatures x , y of the element, while the twisting moments per
unit length Mxy, Myx are related to the local twist xy . The ortho-
tropic model indicates that these relations can be denoted as [16]
Mx = Dxx + D1y
in which a is the amplitude of corrugation section; and is the
angle between incline segment of the corrugation section and the
horizontal line, as shown in Fig. 5.
For all types of corrugated plates, it is always true that Dy and H
are in the same order of magnitude, and Dx is about two orders of
magnitude higher than them.
2.2. Boundary conditions of STCSWs
The inll panel is usually welded to surrounding beams and
columns. There are two types of welds: (1) welds parallel to the
corrugations at upper and lower sides, which are in straight lines
and close to their neutral axis; (2) welds along the ends of the
corrugations at left and right sides, which are in trapezoidal lines
and far away from their neutral axis at the peak or valley of cor-
rugation section. Accordingly, the moments of inertia of welds at
left and right sides are much larger than that at upper and lower

My = D2x + Dyy sides. Therefore, the left and right boundary conditions of inll
panel can be regarded as xed and the upper and lower boundary

Mxy + Myx = Dxyxy (1) conditions can be regarded as simply supported.

For corrugated plates, the constants in Eq. (1) are
2.3. Buckling analysis of stiffened STCSWs with elastically torsional
EI Et 3 q Et 3 restrained edges
Dx = x , Dy = , D1 = D2 = 0, Dxy =
q 12 6(1 + ) (2)
In order to construct a theoretical model which is applicable to
in which E is the elastic modulus of the material of corrugated
different types of boundary conditions, the orthotropic model with
plate; Ix is the moment of inertia of cross-section of one repeating
elastically torsional restrained edges is introduced. As shown in
corrugation section about its neutral axis; is the wave length of
Fig. 6, the overall dimension of the corrugated panel is b h. The
one repeating corrugation section; q is the arc length of one re- corrugated panel is loaded by pure in-plane shear load, N, and
peating corrugation section; t is the thickness of corrugated plate, with its four sides restrained by elastically torsional springs. The
as shown in Fig. 5; and is Poisson's ratio of the material of cor- rigidities per unit length of these elastic restraints on four sides
rugated plate. are denoted as kx1, kx2, ky1, ky2, respectively.
For one repeating corrugation section of a trapezoidal corru- It is important to estimate the restraining rigidities of vertical
gated plate (Fig. 5), some of the constants in Eq. (2) can be further stiffeners to inll corrugated panel. The corrugated panel and
expressed as [4] vertical stiffeners are fastened at the middle of each peak and
valley of repeating corrugation sections with high-strength bolts,
E 4ta3 Et 3 Dxy q Et 3
Dx = 2d1ta2 + , Dy = , H= = thus forming a structure similar to triangle truss (Fig. 7(a)).
3 sin q 12 2 12(1 + ) (3) Therefore, two stiffeners on both sides of the corrugated panel

Fig. 4. Corrugated shear wall and element isolated.

34 J.-Z. Tong, Y.-L. Guo / Thin-Walled Structures 95 (2015) 3139

restraining rigidity of stiffeners is considered to be zero.

Is = 2Is0 + 2A 0 h02 (4)

in which Is is the moment of inertia of the whole cross-section

about its neutral axis; A0 is the area of cross-section of each single
stiffener; Is0 is the moment of inertia of cross-section of each single
stiffener about its neutral axis; h0 is the distance between the
neutral axis of the whole cross-section and that of each single
stiffener.
With the assumption of small deection, the bending strain
energy of a buckled orthotropic plate with small lateral displace-
ment, w, can be expressed as
Fig. 6. Orthotropic model with elastically torsional restrained edges.
2 2 2w 2 2w 2
1 b h w
U1 = 0 0 Dx 2 + Dy 2 + 2H
2
x y xy

2 2
w 2w 2w
+ 2D1 2 dx dy
x y 2
xy
(5)

The total elastic potential energy of torsional springs on four

sides of plate is

1 h w 2 1 h w 2
U2 =
2
k x1 0
x
dy +
2
k x2 0
x
dy
x=0 x=b
2 2
1 b w 1 b w
+
2
k y1 0
y
dx +
2
k y2 0
y
dx
y=0 y=h (6)

The total strain energy of the vertical stiffeners is

1 h 2w 2
U3 = EIs 0 2 dy
2 y
x = b /2 (7)

The potential energy of in-plane shear force is

b h w w
V=N 0 0 x y
dx dy
(8)

Finally, the total potential energy of a STCSW system is ob-

tained as

= U1 + U2 + U3 + V (9)

Since the edges of the corrugated panel are assumed to be

simply supported, a general lateral displacement function covering
both overall and subpanel buckling modes can be presented as
m n
ix iy
w= aij sin sin
i=1 j=1
b h (10)

in which aij are the parameters to be determined to provide a

minimum value for the shear load, N; m, n are the maximum
numbers of half waves on x, y coordinates, respectively, in all
terms.
Substituting Eq. (10) into Eqs. (5)(9), and utilizing the theorem
of minimum potential energy, Eq. (11) is obtained as follows:
Fig. 7. Calculation of restraining rigidities of stiffeners.
U1 U2 U3 V
= + + + =0
should be regarded as a whole cross-section. As shown in Fig. 7(b), aij aij aij aij aij (11)
the moment of inertia of this cross-section, denoted by Is, can be
the terms of which can be expressed by Eqs. (12)(15) as fol-
calculated by Eq. (4). The bending restraining rigidity is expressed
as the product of the elastic modulus, E, and the moment of in- lows:
ertia, Is. On the other hand, the stiffeners and corrugated panels
U1 4 i 4h j4 b i2j2
are fastened, generally, with single row of bolts which cannot = Dx + Dy 3 + 2H aij
aij 4 b3 h bh (12)
transmit the twisting moments efciently, so the twisting
 J.-Z. Tong, Y.-L. Guo / Thin-Walled Structures 95 (2015) 3139 35

U2
m
2h A 2x (y x)
aij
=
r=1 2b2
(
ir k x1 + (1)i + r k x2 a rj ) w=
2
1 cos
b
sin
s (19)
n 2
b in which A is the magnitude of the maximum lateral deection;
+
s= 1 2h2
(
js k y1 + (1) j + s k y2 ais ) (13) is the tangent of the angle between the x-axis and the direction
of node lines of buckled shape; s is the distance on y-coordinate of
U3
m
4EIs i r adjacent parallel node lines (Fig. 8).
= j 4 sin sin a rj The assumed shape function expressed by Eq. (19) satises the
aij r=1 2h3 2 2 (14)
xed boundary condition at left and right boundaries of inll plate,
m n but not the upper and lower sides. However, it is recognized that
V 8ijrs
=N a rs the discrepancy is not too serious if a large number of half waves
aij r=1 s= 1
r i = odd s j = odd
( )(
r 2 i2 j2 s 2) (15) appear in a buckled shape.
By utilizing the theorem of minimum potential energy and Ritz
Eq. (11) can be written into matrix form as method, the elastic buckling formulas (Eq. (20)) of unstiffened
(P NQ )x = 0 (16) STCSWs can be derived. The derivation process is omitted here,
because it is similar to what was presented by Easley [3].
in which P, Q are both mn order matrixes; and x is an mn order
array as follows: Dx3/4 D1/4
y
Ncr = k
b2 (20)
x = (a11, a12, , a1n, a21, , a2n, , a m1, a m2, , a mn)T (17)
in which b is the width of corrugated panel; and k is the elastic
The generalized eigenvalue problem dened by Eq. (18) can be buckling coefcient.
solved using mathematical program MATLAB [17]. The eigenvalue
with the least absolute value denes the elastic buckling load, Ncr,
of the orthotropic plate with stiffeners.
3. Formulas of elastic buckling coefcients for stiffened
det(P NQ ) = 0 (18)
STCSWs
In calculation process of Ncr, a higher precision of results cor-
respond to larger values of m and n, and the results truly reect 3.1. Problem statement
the elastic buckling behavior if the values of m and n are both set
to innity. In order to balance the calculation speed and accuracy, According to Eq. (20), this section focuses on the formulas de-
proper justication of the values of m and n is needed, and some rivation of elastic buckling coefcient, k, which is essential in
conclusions are listed as follows: (1) for unstiffened STCSWs (the calculation of elastic buckling load. Though Eq. (20) is derived by
stiffener rigidity is neglected), a value of m n 15 corresponds to studying unstiffened orthotropic plates, it is recognized that this
a discrepancy less than 1%, (2) for stiffened STCSWs, a value of equation is also suitable for stiffened plates, if the inuence of the
m n 20 leads to a 5% error and the discrepancy is less than 1% if bending stiffness of stiffeners, EIs, is considered by adjusting the
the value of m and n are both set to 40. elastic buckling coefcient, k, i.e. k is set as a variable of EIs. In
order to consider the inuence of geometry of corrugated plate on
2.4. Elastic buckling loads for unstiffened STCSWs the elastic buckling coefcient, k, another two parameters are in-
volved, which were proposed by Bergmann and Reissner [1]. First,
It is possible to use Eq. (10) to calculate accurate values of , which is dened by Eq. (21), represents the ratio of twisting
buckling loads, however, closed form solution is impossible to be moment to bending moment of orthotropic plate. This parameter
obtained, because too many terms are taken into consideration in also shows the degree that the plate is corrugated since: (1) for at
this equation. Considering unstiffened corrugated shear walls, an plates, the equation HDx Dy exists, i.e. = 1.0, and (2) for
equation which contains only one term (Eq. (19)) can be used to common shapes of trapezoidal corrugated plates, < 0.5. On the
describe the buckled shape as shown in Fig. 8, which is also ob- other hand, , the conversed width-to-height ratio, is dened by
served in FE numerical analysis. Eq. (22).

Fig. 8. Geometry of buckled shape of unstiffened corrugated shear wall.

36 J.-Z. Tong, Y.-L. Guo / Thin-Walled Structures 95 (2015) 3139

Fig. 9. Simplication of the problem with particular types of stiffeners.

H
=
DxDy (21)

b Dy
= 4
h Dx (22)

As mentioned above, the buckling mode of stiffened STCSWs is

greatly affected by the bending restraining rigidity of vertical
stiffeners. As shown in Fig. 9, if the bending stiffness of vertical
stiffeners is neglectable, the corrugated panel can be regarded as
an unstiffened plate with 2 sides xed and 2 sides simply sup-
ported. Its elastic buckling coefcient is denoted as kf. As the
bending stiffness of stiffeners increases, the buckling load of stif-
fened STCSWs also increases. If the bending stiffness of vertical
stiffeners exceeds its transition rigidity, which means the out-of-
plane displacement is totally constrained at the location of the
stiffeners, the half structure, a unstiffened plate with 1 side xed
and 3 sides simply supported, can be taken into consideration. Its
Fig. 10. Elastic buckling coefcients of 2-side xed, 2-side simply supported plates.
elastic buckling coefcient is denoted as ks. Therefore, as the
bending stiffness of stiffeners changes, the oor of buckling coef-
cient is kf, and the ceiling is ks corresponding to a half structure.
the width-to-height ratio changes, a certain type of STCSW (with
same bending rigidities) has a number of buckling curves corre-
3.2. Formulas of kf, the elastic buckling coefcient of unstiffened
sponding to different types of overall buckling shapes (related to
STCSWs with 2 xed, 2 simply supported edges
different values of m and n), the tting curve is considered as an
The generalized eigenvalue problem dened by Eq. (18) is approximation of the envelope lines of all these buckling curves.
solved by using the mathematical program MATLAB, and the
boundary conditions are considered by setting k x1 = k x2 = and
3.3. Formulas of ks, the elastic buckling coefcient of unstiffened
k y1 = k y2 = 0 in the program. The MATLAB results are scattered in
STCSWs with 1 xed, 3 simply supported edges
Fig. 10, and their tting curves expressed by Eq. (23) are further
plotted.
Similarly, the generalized eigenvalue dened by Eq. (18) are
kf = (7 + 20 ) 2 + 8 + 61.2 + 29.5 (23) solved, considering the boundary conditions by setting k x1 = and
k x2 = k y1 = k y2 = 0 in the program. The MATLAB results and their
in which is the ratio of twisting moment to bending moment tting curves, expressed by Eq. (24), are plotted in Fig. 11.
of orthotropic plate expressed by Eq. (21); and is the conversed
width-to-height ratio dened by Eq. (22). ks = (7 + 20 ) 2 + 8 + 45 + 25 (24)
The maximum discrepancy between numerical results and t-
ting formulas is 5.4%, and for typical STCSWs (width-to-height The maximum discrepancy between numerical results and t-
ratio b/h o2.0 and o0.6), the discrepancy is less than 1.0%. Be- ting formulas is 4.3%, and for typical STCSWs, the discrepancy is
sides, for situations that 0.0743 and 0.06  0.3, the calcula- less than 1.0%. Furthermore, in order to convert the results of half
tion results of tting formulas (kf 63.966.6) agrees perfectly structure to the original structure, four times of the buckling
with the results (kf 64.366.6) presented by Nie and Tang [8]. coefcient, 4ks, should be considered as the ceiling of the buckling
It should be further emphasized that, as shown in Fig. 10, when coefcients with limited stiffened STCSWs.
 J.-Z. Tong, Y.-L. Guo / Thin-Walled Structures 95 (2015) 3139
Fig. 11. Elastic buckling coefcients of 1-side xed, 3-side simply supported plates.
3.4. Transition rigidity ratio
The transition rigidity is usually dened as the bending stiff-
ness of vertical stiffeners which is big enough to effectively con-
strain the out-of-plane displacement of corrugated panel. The
transition rigidity can also be illustrated as the stiffness of vertical
stiffeners which corresponds the buckling coefcient, k, equaling
to its theoretical ceiling, 4ks, i.e. k 4ks.
Additionally, the transition rigidity of stiffeners is affected by
the stiffness of corrugated panel, since the higher the stiffness of
corrugated plate, the higher the stiffness of stiffeners is needed to
constrain the out-of-plane displacement effectively. In order to
present a threshold value which apply to different types of
STCSWs, a new parameter, , called rigidity ratio is introduced and
dened as the ratio of bending stiffness of vertical stiffeners, EIs, to
bending rigidity of corrugated panel, Dy, as shown in Eq. (25).
EIs 2EIs
= =
Dy(b/2) Dyb
In Fig. 12, the curves show the relationship between buckling
coefcient, k, and stiffness ratio, , while the horizontal lines re-
present the buckling coefcient k 4ks. So the horizontal co-
ordinates of the intersections of curves and corresponding hor-
izontal lines are the transition rigidity ratios. Since these transition
Fig. 12. Transition rigidity ratio of vertical stiffeners.
37
rigidity ratios are distributed within the range from 80 to 120, it is
recognized that 0 = 100 can be a reasonable value of transition
rigidity ratio without too much discrepancy.
3.5. Formulas of elastic buckling coefcient of stiffened STCSWs
By calculating three different types of stiffened STCSWs, para-
meter scope of which is shown in Table 1, formulas of elastic
buckling coefcient of stiffened STCSWs are proposed as follows:
1.7
kf + 4ks kf 1 1
( ) 0
k= 0
4k s > 0 (26)
in which kf is the elastic buckling coefcient of unstiffened
STCSWs with 2 xed, 2 simply supported edges which can be
calculated by Eq. (23); ks is the elastic buckling coefcient of un-
stiffened STCSWs with 1 xed, 3 simply supported edges dened
by Eq. (24), and should be calculated using half the value of ( is
the conversed width-to-height ratio of original corrugated plate);
and 0 = 100 is the transition rigidity ratio.
As shown in Fig. 13, the discrepancy between numerical results
and proposed formulas is less than 5.0% and the tting formulas
give safe estimations of elastic buckling coefcients.
4. Numerical verication of proposed formulas
4.1. Finite element model
A nite element model using the commercial program ANSYS
[18] is constructed, as shown in Fig. 14, to verify the proposed
formulas. The inll corrugated panel and surrounding beams and
columns are modeled by Shell181, a four-node shell element with
six degrees of freedom at each node. The vertical stiffeners are
modeled by Beam4, a uniaxial beam element with six degrees of
freedom at each node. The inll corrugated panel and the stif-
(25) feners are dened elastic with E 206 GPa. The frame beams and
columns are also dened elastic with E0 100E, which can be re-
garded as innitely rigid elements. Poisson's ratios of both mate-
rials are 0.3.
Furthermore, the joints of frame columns and beams are as-
sumed to be hinged to avoid their possible contribution to resist
lateral shear forces and the out-of-plane displacements of sur-
rounding columns and beams are restrained. The three displace-
ment components of nodes in pairs on the vertical stiffeners and
inll plate at the locations of high-strength bolts are coupled to
simulate bolt connection. The rotations of vertical stiffeners about
their central axes are also restrained to avoid the rigid body ro-
tation. The pure in-plane shear loads are applied evenly over the
frame beams and columns, as shown in Fig. 14.
4.2. Comparison of FEM results and proposed formulas
The FEM results and proposed formulas (Eq. (26)) are com-
pared herein. Fig. 15 gives the correlativity of the elastic buckling
coefcients gained from FE analysis and proposed formulas, with
the change of . It also shows that: (1) if the bending stiffness of
stiffeners is not too small, e.g. 430, which covers most situations
in practical structures, the discrepancies between the FEM results
and the proposed formulas are less than 5%, indicating that the
formulas proposed (Eq. (26)) are high in accuracy, and (2) if 30,
corresponding to stiffeners with low bending stiffness, the pro-
posed formulas underestimate the shear buckling strength with a
discrepancies within 14%, however, the proposed formulas give
38 J.-Z. Tong, Y.-L. Guo / Thin-Walled Structures 95 (2015) 3139

Table 1
Parameter scope of calculation examples.

Group d1 (mm) d2 (mm) a (mm) t (mm) Dx (N mm) Dy (N mm) H (N mm) h (mm) b/h

1 30 26 7.5 1 8.24  106 1.76  104 1.41  104 0.0371 3024 1.02.5 0.210.54 0200
2 30 26 7.5 2 1.65  107 1.41  105 1.13  105 0.0743 3024 1.02.5 0.300.76 0200
3 30 26 7.5 3 2.47  107 4.75  105 3.82  105 0.1114 3024 1.02.5 0.370.93 0200

Fig. 13. Comparison of numerical results and proposed formulas.

Fig. 14. Finite element model.

safe estimations of the shear buckling load of stiffened STCSWs. In 5. Conclusion

conclusion, the proposed formulas expressed by Eq. (26) can be
used directly into practical designs with a certain degree of safety STCSWs can be applied to multi-storey frames and high-rise
redundancy. buildings serving as lateral force resistance systems and energy-
dissipation systems. The shear buckling strength of STCSW
 J.-Z. Tong, Y.-L. Guo / Thin-Walled Structures 95 (2015) 3139
Fig. 15. Comparison of FEM results and proposed formulas.
signicantly increases by adding vertical stiffeners to it, especially
in some long-span frame structures. It is important to determine
the elastic buckling loads of stiffened STCSWs since: (1) for some
thin STCSWs, the elastic buckling loads usually represent the load-
carrying capacity, and (2) for some thick STCSWs, the elastic
buckling loads can be used in calculation of the relative slender-
ness, which is essential in designing of STCSWs.
In this paper, the elastic buckling behavior of stiffened STCSWs
is theoretically and numerically investigated. The investigation
includes a theoretical model containing an orthotropic plate with
elastically torsional restrained edges and a nite element model
using ANSYS to verify the proposed formulas. The results are as
follows:
(1) In a stiffened STCSW, the left and right boundary conditions of
inll panel can be regarded as xed while the upper and lower
boundary conditions can be regarded as simply supported.
(2) 0 = 100 is a reasonable value of transition rigidity ratio
without too much discrepancy, however, the suggested value
reects the equivalence of overall and subpanel critical buck-
ling loads, and does not contain any information about plastic
behaviors.
(3) Formulas of elastic buckling coefcients of stiffened STCSWs
proposed by tting the MATLAB results give safe estimations
39
of elastic buckling coefcients.
(4) The comparison of nite element numerical results and the
proposed formulas shows that the formulas are high in accu-
racy and can be used directly into practical designs of stiffened
STCSWs.
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