Experimental Study on Cyclic Behavior of Reverse-Slit Twin Plate Steel Shear Wall

Conventional steel plate shear walls (SPSWs) are prone to bidirectional buckling and yielding under cyclic loading—i.e., cyclic buckling and yielding in two inclined tension-field directions—leading to fatigue cracking in the infill plate and reduced ductility and energy dissipation. To address this issue, a novel reverse-slit twin plate steel shear wall (RS-TP-SPSW) is proposed, in which two steel infill plates with reverse slit configurations replace the single infill plate of a conventional SPSW. This arrangement enforces unidirectional yielding in each plate, effectively mitigating fatigue cracking and enhancing seismic performance. Three reduced-scale test specimens—two RS-TP-SPSWs with different slit patterns and one conventional SPSW—were tested under cyclic loading. Key seismic behaviors, including damage progression, failure modes, hysteretic response, and energy dissipation, are reported. The RS-TP-SPSWs exhibited stable hysteretic behavior even at large deformations, achieving peak-load roof drift ratio up to 8.91% (maximum interstory drift ratio 8.89%) and ultimate roof drift ratio up to 10.01% (10.49%), far exceeding those of the conventional SPSW. Despite only a 5.2% increase in steel usage, the RS-TP-SPSWs achieved up to 63.7% higher cumulative energy dissipation, indicating a pronounced enhancement in seismic performance relative to the increase in material demand.