BULETINUL INSTITUTULUI POLITEHNIC DIN IAŞI

Publicat de
Universitatea Tehnică „Gheorghe Asachi” din Iaşi
Tomul LV (LIX), Fasc. 3, 2009
Secţia
CONSTRUCŢII. ĂRHITECTURĂ

NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF COMPOSITE STEEL

CONCRETE STRUCTURAL SHEAR WALLS WITH
STEEL ENCASED PROFILES
BY

DANIEL DAN, VALERIU STOIAN and AL. FABIAN

Abstract. The use of common reinforced concrete shear walls in high rise buildings
is sometimes limited because of the large amount of reinforcement localized at the end of
the element. A good alternative in avoiding this disadvantage is to use composite steel
concrete structural shear walls with steel encased profiles. This solution used for high rise
buildings, offers to designers lateral stiffness, shear capacity and high bending resisting
moment of structural walls. The encasement of the steel shapes in concrete is applied also
for the following purposes: flexural stiffening and strengthening of compression elements;
fire protection; potentially easier repairs after moderate damage; economy with respect
both to material and construction. Until now in the national and international literature
poor information about nonlinear behaviour of composite steel concrete structural shear
walls with steel encased profiles is available. A theoretical and experimental program
related to the behaviour of steel concrete structural shear walls with steel encased profiles
is developed at “Politehnica” University of Timişoara. The program refers to six different
elements, which differ by the shape of the steel encased profile and also by the
arrangement of steel shapes on the cross section of the element. In order to calibrate the
elements for experimental study some numerical analysis were made. The paper presents
the results of numerical analysis with details of stress distribution, crack distribution,
structural stiffness at various loads, and load bearing capacity of the elements.
Key words: Composite construction; shear walls; numerical analysis.

1. Introduction

Composite construction utilizing steel and concrete are used in world

wide almost as soon as the two materials became available for structural
engineers. Since the beginnings composite construction is in continuous
progress, every high rise building that rises up to the sky, being the result of a
22 Daniel Dan, Valeriu Stoian and Al. Fabian

continuous research work in all developed countries. When speaking about

composite construction it has to be mentioned that because of the development
directions that governs the construction work, composite elements are used
together with steel elements, reinforced concrete elements, for obtaining hybrid
structures. Such composite elements that can be used together with perimeter
frames in obtaining dual systems are the composite walls.
Composite walls are reinforced concrete walls with additional steel
shapes or plates, being subjected to combined axial and lateral loads. Walls with
additional shapes referred as composite steel–concrete shear walls, contain one
or more encased steel shapes, usually located at the ends of the wall. The design
principles of composite shear walls are included in specific codes-design of
composite steel and concrete structures and in provisions regarding the design
of buildings for earthquake resistance.
Although the research and specifications for composite construction,
specially columns and beams, started very early, the design principles regarding
composite structures, especially composite steel concrete shear walls, show a
poor level of knowledge and in order to complete the design prescriptions,
experimental studies in major laboratories and research centres, are in process.

2. Theoretical Aspects Regarding Composite Steel Concrete Shear Walls

The European standard EN 1994-1-1, Eurocode 4: Design of Composite

Steel and Concrete Structures: General Rules and Rules for Buildings,
describes the principles and requirements for resistance, serviceability and
durability of composite steel concrete structures. The simplified design method
for composite compression members, which is limited to doubly symmetrical
and uniform cross section along the element length, gives the plastic resistance
to compression of a composite cross section fully encased steel section as

(1) N pl , Rd = Aa f yd + 0.85 Ac f cd + As f sd ,

where: Aa , Ac , As represents, cross sectional areas of structural steel, concrete

and reinforcement of the composite cross section, respectively; fyd – design
value of yield strength of structural steel; fcd – design value of compression
strength of concrete; fsd – design value of yield strength of reinforcement
The plastic moment resistance of a doubly symmetric composite cross-
section may be evaluated as follows:

(2) M pl , Rd = f yd (W pa − W pan ) + 0.5 f cd (W pc − W pcn ) + f sd (W ps − W psn ) ,

where: Wpa, Wpc, Wps represents plastic section modulus for steel section,
concrete and reinforcement of composite cross section, respectively (for the
 Bul. Inst. Polit. Iaşi, t. LV (LIX), f. 3, 2009 23

calculation of Wpc the concrete is assumed to be uncracked); Wpan, Wpcn, Wpsn –

plastic section modulus of the corresponding components within the region of
2hn from the middle line of composite cross section for steel section, concrete
and reinforcement of composite cross section, respectively; hn – depth of the
neutral axis from the middle line of cross section.
The resistance of a cross section to combined compression and bending may be
calculated taking into account the design shear force, Va,Ed , as follows: if the
value of Va,Ed exceeds 50% of the design shear resistance, Vpl,a,Rd , is given by

1
(3) Va , Ed = Av f yd γ M 0 ;
3

the influence of shear force is taken into account by a reduced steel strength
with the factor 1 – ρ, where

2
⎛ 2Va , Ed ⎞
(4) ρ =⎜ − 1⎟ ,
⎜ V pl ,a , Rd ⎟
⎝ ⎠

with γM0 – a partial factor for structural steel applied to resistance of cross
section

3. Non-Linear Analysis

The non-linear behaviour of a structural element can occur from

different causes as geometric non-linearities, material non-linearities. The
geometric non-linearities are caused due to large deformations experienced by
structures, which can cause geometric configuration changing. Non-linear
stress–strain relationships are a common cause of non-linear structural
behaviour. Many factors can influence material’s stress–strain properties,
including load history (as in elasto-plastic response), environmental conditions
(such as temperature), and the amount of time that a load is applied (as in creep
response).
The non-linear behaviour in composite steel concrete shear walls is due
to the nonlinear properties of concrete and steel material, shear stud material,
and also due to the interaction between these materials.

3.1 Reinforced Concrete Model for Plane Stress State

A phenomenological approach to concrete failure may be based on

various classical criteria for yielding and failure of an isotropic material. Of
course these criteria are suitably modified as to account for the different values
of the compressive and tensile strength of concrete. Although all yielding and
24 Daniel Dan, Valeriu Stoian and Al. Fabian

failure assumptions (apart von Misses) incorporate the different compression

and tensile behaviours. Therefore, a combined criterion such as Cervenka
together with von Misses criterion for compression was used. The finite element
modelling of cracked concrete was achieved with distributed cracks. The
reinforcement is supposed uniformly distributed. At material level, the stiffness
matrix may be obtained by superposing the concrete and the reinforcement
matrices.

3.2 Non-linear Analysis Software

The software called BIOGRAF is aimed to analyse reinforced concrete

and composite steel-concrete elements in plane stress state. The two
dimensional non-linear analysis is performed using incremental-iterative
procedure (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1 – Incremental procedure diagram.

An incremental approach is adequate in like cases for describing the

transition from one working stage to the next (load history analysis) within each
loading step an iterative procedure is used. The software gives in all the
elements, in all load steps, the displacements, stresses and strains in concrete
and steel and the physical state of the finite element (cracked, uncracked, plastic
state, crushed).

4. Composite Steel–Concrete Shear Wall Analysis

4.1 Models Presentation

Six proposed 1/3 scale elements CSRCW-1,…,6 were designed using

the principles from the existing codes that make references to composite steel
concrete elements. The aim of this paper is to predict non-linear behaviour,
stress distribution along the cross section of the elements, crack distribution,
structural stiffness at various loads, load bearing capacity of different types of
composite steel–concrete shear walls, and comparisons with experimental
results revealed by experimental tests which will be made during a research
programme that started at our university. The differences between the six
 Bul. Inst. Polit. Iaşi, t. LV (LIX), f. 3, 2009 25

proposed element types are due to the arrangement of the steel shapes on the
cross section of the wall and also due to the shape of the steel encased element.
All six elements have a 3,000 mm height, 1,000 mm length and 100 mm depth.
The encased steel profiles are 70 × 70 × 5 mm squared tubular sections, welded
wide flange sections 70 × 70 × 5 × 7 mm, 100 × 70 × 5 × 7 mm. The steel profiles
are connected with the concrete by Ø13 mm headed shear stud connectors with
60 mm length. The reinforcement is made by vertical bars having Ø10/100 mm
and horizontal bars of Ø8/150 mm. The confinement zones are made by
Ø8/150 mm stirrups which hold together the longitudinal reinforcements from
the ends of the elements. Both vertical and horizontal reinforcements are placed
on both sides of the concrete wall and connected together with ties having
Ø8/400/450 mm. Element CSRCW-6 is a traditional reinforced concrete shear
wall and it is designed to have the amount of reinforcement concentrated at the
end approximate to steel amount from other elements. The concrete used is
C20/25 class, the reinforcements are made by steel S355 and the structural steel
is Fe510. The details of all six types of steel concrete composite shear walls are
presented in Figs. 2a and 2b. The elements are considered cantilevers subjected
to horizontal loads applied as incremental loads, in the nodes from the top of the
mesh.

Fig. 2 a – Details of the steel concrete composite shear walls.

26 Daniel Dan, Valeriu Stoian and Al. Fabian

Fig. 2 b – Details of the steel concrete composite shear walls.

4.2. Analysis Results

All elements were analysed using approximatively the same loading

increments, for avoiding the differences that could appear due to the influence
of this parameter on the obtained results for all elements. The other parameters
which gave the nonlinear behaviour are due to the cracks that appear in the
tensioned concrete and the plasticization in compressed concrete, also because
of the steel yielding. BIOGRAF software gives in all elements, in all load steps,
the values of displacements, stresses and strains in concrete and steel and the
physical state of the finite element (cracked, uncracked, plastic state, crushed).
Evaluating the physical state of the finite elements, for all six element types, the
following conclusions are obtained:
 Bul. Inst. Polit. Iaşi, t. LV (LIX), f. 3, 2009 27

For element CSRCW-1, the elastic limit of the concrete is at a force

value equal to F = 8.7 kN, and a corresponding displacement of 0.23 mm. From
load step number 18 it can be noticed that the concrete is cracked near the steel
encased element; this can produce during the experimental test concrete
splitting which can cause the buckling of the steel element at a value of the
force lower that the one obtained in the numerical analysis. Therefore, a bigger
attention has to be given to the confinement zone and to the shear connectors, to
avoid buckling failure until bending or share failure occur in the wall. The
elastic limit of the element is at a force value equal to F = 149.2 kN.
The displacement at the elastic limit of the element is 9.66 mm. The
wall collapse occurs at step 70 at a force value equal to F = 189.5 kN, resulting
a capable moment equal to Mpl,Rd = 568 kN.m, value that is bigger than one
obtained with the simplified method from EC 4. The displacement until the
moment of collapse is 21.1 mm. The collapse is specific to reinforced concrete
failure, the concrete crashes when the reinforcement, including steel profile is in
yielding. An important observation is that yielding occurs first in the steel
encased element and after that in the reinforcement. For elements CSRCW-
2,…,6 the elastic limits of the elements are different and also the values of crack
moments and the ultimate forces and displacements. These values are indicated
in the comparative Table 1.
Table 1
Comparison of Results on all Element Types
CSRCW-1 CSRCW-2 CSRCW-3 CSRCW-4 CSRCW-5 CSRCW-6
Elastic limit
force 149.1 154.6 162.4 144.2 119.6 110.5
kN
Elastic limit
displacement 9.66 9.96 9.19 9.23 9.47 8.90
mm
Ultimate
shear force 189.5 196.6 239.0 195.4 158.5 143.7
kN
Ultimate
displacement 21.10 20.10 18.40 19.50 20.55 20.52
mm
Bending
moment 568 590 717 586 475 431
resistance
kNm

As it can be observed from Table 1 the maximum shear force is

obtained at element CSRCW-3 which has an encased profile at the middle of
the cross section. So it can be noticed that the amount of steel in composite wall
cross sections influences the value of ultimate shear force. Also for element
CSRCW-6, which is the ordinary reinforced concrete, is observed that it has the
lowest shear capacity although the amount of vertical reinforcement is equal to
the amount of steel from the encased element.
28 Daniel Dan, Valeriu Stoian and Al. Fabian

Fig. 3 – Crack distribution at different staps.

Fig. 3 presents the crack distribution in the elements at various load

steps. First crack appears in all elements after the elastic limit of the concrete is
 Bul. Inst. Polit. Iaşi, t. LV (LIX), f. 3, 2009 29

reached. The evolution of the cracks is a normal one, cracks being distributed
uniformly on the elements surface in all six elements. The vertical cracks in the
compression zone, which appear in all six elements, but at different load stages,
also show the splitting tendency of concrete from the structural steel. The cracks
from the upper part of the elements are due to the fact that loads are applied in
every point from the top of the mesh. The difference between crack
orientations is visible at a larger scale that one presented in this figure.
Because of the lack of space, crack distribution is presented only on elements
CSRCW-1, CSRCW-3, CSRCW-5.
Fig. 4 presents a comparison between force vs. displacement curves
obtained for all six element types. All six elements experience stiffness
decreasing after concrete cracking, but this decrease is not as evident as that
produced by steel yielding and concrete plasticization. The stiffest element is
CSRCW-3 with three encased steel elements and the less stiff is CSRCW-6, the
reinforced concrete wall, the other walls stiffness varies between these limits.

Fig. 4 – Comparative force vs. displacement curves.

Although the maximum shear force resistance is obtained for

CSRCW-3, because of the higher stiffness the ultimate displacement is smaller
than for the other elements with a smaller shear resistance but with a higher
value of ultimate displacement. This observation is better presented in Fig. 5.
The displacement ductility is known as the ratio value between the ultimate
30 Daniel Dan, Valeriu Stoian and Al. Fabian

displacement and the displacement when the first steel element yields. The
displacement ductility is a parameter that defines better the capacity of a
structure in dissipating energy during seismic events. The maximum ductility is
experienced by reinforced concrete element. Although it is possible that during
the experimental tests that will be carry on, on same experimental elements with
those analysed in this paper , to obtain values of ductility little different from
those obtained in numerical analysis. This could happen because the programme
doesn’t take into account the friction between crack faces.

Fig. 5 – Comparative displacement ductility.

5. Conclusions

The national and international literature studied show a poor level of

knowledge in the field of using of composite shear walls at the multi-storey
building. The observations on composite steel concrete structures subjected to
important earthquakes made possible the improving of performances of
structural systems that use steel concrete composite shear walls. Using the
information presented above and the information from specific literature the
following conclusions can be formulated:
1. Non-linear analysis were made on six different types of composite
steel reinforced concrete shear walls with steel encased profiles.
2. The composite steel concrete shear walls have an important plastic
resistance to compression, combined compression and bending and shear
resistance. Also the stiffness value increases as the amount of steel increases on
the cross section of the element too.
3. The displacement ductility has values that not differ very much for
all elements, because the amount of the steel is almost the same.
 Bul. Inst. Polit. Iaşi, t. LV (LIX), f. 3, 2009 31

Experimental tests will be made in order to confirm the numerical

analysis results.
Received, July 3, 2009 „Politehnica” University, Timişoara,
Department of Civil Engineering
e-mail: [email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

REFERENCES
1. * * * Design of Composite Steel and Concrete Structures. EN 1994.1.1.
2. * * * Design of Structures for Earthquake Resistance. EN 1998-1.
3. * * * Seismic Provisions for Structural Steel Buildings. ANSI/AISC 341-05.
4. * * * Specification for Structural Steel Buildings. ANSI/AISC 360-05.
5. Tupper B., Seismic Response of Reinforced Concrete Walls with Steel Boundary
Elements. M. Sc. Diss., Mc Gill Univ., Montreal, Canada, 1999.
6. Astaneh-Asl. A, Seismic Behaviour and Design of Composite Steel Plate Shear
Walls, Steel Tips, Univ. of California, Berkeley, May 2002.
7. Dan D., Stoian V., Nagy T., Numerical Analysis and Experimental Studies
Concerning the Behavior of Steel–Concrete Composite Joints under
Symmetrical and Asymmetrical Loads. Proc. of Internat. Conf. on Steel a.
Composite Struct., Manchester, UK, 2007.
8. Fabian A., Stoian V., Dan D, General Problems Regarding the Behavior of Steel–
Concrete Composite Shear Walls in High-Rise Buildings Bul. Şt. Univ.
“Politehnica”, s. Construcţii şi arhitectură, 51 (65), 81-86 (2005).
9. Fabian A., Stoian V., Dan D., Numerical Analysis on Numerical Analysis on
Composite Steel–Concrete Structural Shear Walls with Steel Encased Profiles.
Proc. of the Sixth Internat. Conf. on Behaviour of Steel Struct. Seismic Areas-
Stessa 2009, Philadelphia, Pennsilvania, USA, August 16-20, 2009, 345-350.
10. Guo L., Ma X., Zhang S., Guan N., Experimental Research on Seismic Behavior
of Two-Sided Steel–Concrete Composite Shear Walls. Proc. of Eurosteel 2008,
Graz, Austria, September 3-5, 2008, 1, 1467-1473.

ANALIZE NUMERICE A PEREŢILOR COMPOZIŢI OŢEL–BETON CU

ELEMENTE METALICE ÎNGLOBATE
(Rezumat)

Utilizarea sistemului tradiţional de pereţi din beton armat la realizarea

structurilor înalte poate fi câteodată limitată datorită cantităţii mari de armătură
concentrată la capătul elementului. O alternativă în evitarea acestei probleme o
constituie utilizarea pereţilor compoziţi oţel–beton cu profile metalice înglobate.
Această soluţie, utilizată în cazul clădirilor înalte, oferă proiectanţilor rigiditate laterală ,
capacitate de forfecare şi momente capabile mari ale secţiunilor. Înglobarea profilelor
metalice în beton se realizează şi datorită faptului că ele conferă rigiditatea şi rezistenţa
elementului compozit oţel–beton. Totodată soluţia oferă o protecţie la foc
corespunzătoare în ceea ce priveşte profilele metalice care sunt protejate faţă de
32 Daniel Dan, Valeriu Stoian and Al. Fabian

acţiunea focului. Până în prezent literatura naţională şi internaţională oferă foarte puţine
informaţii legate de comportarea pereţilor cu profile metalice înglobate. În cadrul
Universităţii „Politehnica” din Timişoara se desfăşoară un program de studii teoretice şi
experimentale cu scopul de a obţine mai multe informaţii în ceea ce priveşte
comportarea pereţilor din beton armat cu profile metalice înglobate. În cadrul
programului de cercetare se au în vedere şase tipuri de pereţi, la care diferenţele se
referă la modul de aranjare al profilelor metalice şi la tipul profilelor metalice utilizate.
În faza actuală au fost efectuate analize numerice neliniare cu scopul de a obţine
informaţiile necesare pentru viitoarele încercări experimentale.
Se prezintă rezultatele analizelor numerice efectuate pe cele şase tipuri de
elemente cu prezentarea distribuţiei eforturilor unitare, distribuţia fisurilor, rigiditatea
elementelor la diferite niveluri de solicitare şi evaluarea capacităţii portante a
elementelor.