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The results of an investigation into the seismic behavior of unstiffened thin steel‐plate shear walls is presented. Little work has been done in the past to investigate the behavior of unstiffened thin steel‐plate shear walls in resisting lateral forces due to earthquakes or wind. Described is the cyclic testing of six, 1:4 scale specimens that include a moment‐resisting frame, three specimens with varying plate thickness and moment‐resisting beam‐to‐column connections, and two specimens with shear beam‐to‐column connections. Dissimilarities in behavior modes are found when the specimens of different plate thickness are compared to each other. The specimens with thinner plates exhibit an inelastic behavior that is controlled primarily by yielding of the thin plate, and the nonlinear system behavior is predominantly due to the stretching of the plate and the formation of a diagonal tension field. The specimens with thicker plates show an inelastic behavior that is primarily governed by the columns, and the capacity of the specimen with the thickest plate is limited by the instability of the column.
Caccese et al. (Mon,) studied this question.