effect of stiffening in behavior of steel plate shear walls

one of the most effective ways to improve the behavior of unstiffened steel plate shear walls (spsw) is stiffening of steel plates. utilizing stiffeners will result in increased strength, stiffness and most significant of all, increase in the energy dissipation in spsws. in this numerical study, the behavior of spsws with various layouts of stiffeners has beeninvestigated. loading patterns include monotonic loads and cyclic loads. increase in ultimate strength of the panel was obtained at about 23% and ultimate strength of the plate at about 12% in optimal stiffening of panels, implying the elimination of pinching in the hysteresis loops.