Abstract: Coupled steel plate shear wall is a new type of lateral resisting system by linking coupling beam between steel plate shear walls. The introduction of coupling beam changes the anti-overturning mechanism, thus affecting the column's stability and structural deformation. Therefore, the cross-section of the coupling beam was used as a variable to study the influence of the coupling action derived from coupling beam on the stability and deformation of the coupling steel plate shear wall.
A full-scale 6-story steel plate shear wall was taken as the prototype, changing the coupling beam section, then Abaqus was used to simulate the monotonic and cycle loading. The results show that, the coupling effect of coupling beam can reduce the compression of the outer column then lighten the structural instability. With the increase of section height of coupling beam, the structural shear capacity is gradually increased, but the increasing trend is smaller and the instability of the shear capacity is increased gradually. Before the drift ratio reaches 1/50, the structure is in normal use stage, while the shear capacity decreases significantly and the structure is in the risk of collapse after exceeding the drift ratio of 1/30. When ductility is used as criterion, the coupling ratio has an optimal interval, as it rises from 0. 6 to 1. 2, the structural ductility basically shows the phenomenon of rapid rise→ gentle rise→ slow decline→rapid decline. The coupling ratio of the gentle rise stage can attain the optimal interval.