About the author  ⁄ Jeffrey W. Berman, Ph.D.

Jeffrey W. Berman, Ph.D., is Thomas & Marilyn Nielsen Associate Professor of Structural Engineering and Mechanics at the University of Washington, Seattle. Jeffrey may be reached at jwberman@uw.edu.

Concentrically braced frames (CBFs) resist large lateral forces due to wind and earthquake loading, and their ductility is largely derived from tension yielding and compressive buckling of the braces. Since 1990, AISC has focused on improving seismic resistance of CBFs by introducing detailing requirements for the connection, geometric limits of the brace, and capacity-design-type strength requirements for the gusset plate and the framing members.

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Steel plate shear wall (SPSW) technology is advancing, making more wide-spread implementation of seismic force resisting systems possible. These stiff and ductile systems have had years of research that has demonstrated their excellent seismic performance, explored various details and configurations, and resulted in the design provisions in ANSI/AISC 341-10, where they are denoted special plate shear walls. The key principal for design is that yielding is expected in the web plates, at the beams ends and at the column bases.

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