•ABAQUS models of SC walls can be developed to predict the nonlinear in-plane response.•Degradation of concrete and true steel stress-strain relationship should be included.•Shear strength of the SC walls increases with the increase of steel reinforcement ratio and the decrease of faceplate slenderness ratio. This paper presents a numerical study of steel-plate concrete (SC) composite walls using the general-purpose finite element (FE) program ABAQUS. Predictions are compared to data from reversed cyclic, inelastic tests of four large-scale SC wall piers with an aspect ratio of 1.0. Each wall comprises two steel faceplates, infill concrete, steel studs and tie rods as connectors, and a steel baseplate that connects it to the reinforced concrete (RC) foundation. Key design variables are studied, including reinforcement ratio, connector type, and faceplate slenderness ratio. The predicted responses including global force-displacement relationships, damage to infill concrete and steel faceplates, shearing force contributions, and connector behavior, are in good agreement with the measured data. The steel faceplates are found to contribute between 20% and 70% of the total shearing resistance of the SC wall piers evaluated here, depending on the reinforcement ratio, faceplate slenderness ratio, story drift, and level of damage. Tie-rods are preferred to shear studs in the first few rows of connectors above the baseplate, where significant out-of-plane buckling of the steel faceplates and damage of the infill concrete are expected.