Self-Centering Steel–Timber Hybrid Shear Wall: Experimental Test and Parametric Analysis

Due to timber material’s environmental benefits and satisfactory structural properties, the studies on providing solutions to the application of timber to mid-rise or even high-rise buildings have been recently increasing. Among them, the steel–timber hybrid shear wall (STHSW) is one of the promising lateral resisting systems. However, the application of the system is limited because of its unsatisfactory earthquake resilience. In this paper, a new system, self-centering (SC)-STHSW, is proposed by introducing post-tensioned (PT) technology into the STHSW system. The cyclic loading test of one full-scale SC-STHSW specimen was conducted. The new system was proved to have both satisfactory self-centering capacity and the sufficient energy dissipation. Within the OpenSees platform, a numerical model was developed and validated by the experiment result. The model was further used in the parametric analysis. The system’s self-centering capacity, energy dissipation performance and the ultimate strength were evaluated under multiple parameters. The parameters included the initial PT stress ratio, the relative value of the damper’s activation force, the wood shear wall’s resistance, the beam section height and the wood shear wall’s strength. The lateral wall-to-frame stiffness ratio was also considered. Each parameter’s effects on three different performances of the system were analyzed. Based on the analysis results, a design parameter, a self-centering ratio, was proposed. The ratio was suggested to be larger than 0.5 to ensure a favorable self-centering performance in the system. This study provides support to the application of the innovative steel–timber hybrid structural system in practical engineering.