A study on the stiffness effects of link beam on the behavior of coupling shear wall

Coupling shear wall has been highly considered in recent years. Due to architectural limitations, sometimes the architect is forced to use two spans separate from shear wall. The study results have shown that using coupling shear wall will have better results than single wall in structure behavior and the desired performance can be achieved by using thinner plates. Coupling steel shear wall has many positive properties like high ductility, sufficient resistance, high energy absorption capacity and easy implementation. This study examined the behavior of coupling shear wall and the stiffness effects of link beam on it. The results showed that energy absorption in structures increases and additional displacements are avoided by increasing the bending stiffness of link beam. On the other hand using corrugated plates instead of flat plate causes the increase of small displacements of system capacity but the increase of change of these plates causes the loss of resistance in this type of plates and they finally bear forces like flat plates by showing post-buckling behavior. The stiffness of link beam affects more on displacements and the values of drift and displacement. But this change of stiffness does not have any effect on the force absorbed by frame.