Composite shear wall proposed as a lateral load-resisting system aiming to address the deficiencies of steel plate shear walls. To prevent premature shear buckling in the steel plate, one- or two-sided concrete panels with appropriate thickness are attached to the infill plate. Examining the damage in concrete panels can facilitate the prediction of the behavior of the steel plate. Furthermore, understanding the progression of damage in concrete panels can lead to more effective measures for restraining the infill steel plate. Therefore, in the present study, the effect of infill plate thickness and shear connector spacing on the amount and pattern of damage in RC panels under cyclic loading has been investigated using the finite element method. The research results indicate that concrete panels reach their ultimate damage threshold at a drift of 2%. Using shorter spacing for shear connectors results in more uniform but faster propagation of damage in the center of the concrete panel. However, at greater distances between shear connectors, damage in the concrete panel concentrates initially at all connector locations and then spreads to other areas of the panel. Additionally, in similar drift levels, concrete panels with thicker plates show lower damage values compared to systems with thinner plates due to the higher buckling strength of thicker infill plates.

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