ABSTRACT
SUMMARY A number of buildings have been constructed in recent years using steel plate shear walls, most notably in the United States and Japan. Design practice has been to calculate the capacity of the shear wall either on the basis of attainment of shear yield or using the stress that will produce shear buckling of the plate. Any additional strength that might be present after the web has buckled is neglected. The consequence of the conservative approach used is that either relatively thick plates must be used or the plates must be heavily stiffened.
