Elemento Wall

El elemento tipo Wall incluido en la biblioteca de elementos finitos de los programas MIDAS, es un
Superelemento, es decir, es un elemento compuesto por diferentes elementos finitos y se usa para
modelar muros de corte. Este superelemento no tiene nodos internos.

Se formulan 2 tipos: Membrane o Plate.

1. Elemento Wall-Membrane
El elemento tipo Wall-Membrane se usa para modelar muros diseñados para resistir cargas en su
plano, dado que resiste fuerzas en el plano y momentos (My) con respecto a eje normal al plano del
muro (eje y). Un elemento Wall -Membrane, se compone de un elemento Plane Stress + 4 elementos
Beam:

Elementos finitos del elemento Wall-Membrane: Beam y Plane Stress

Formulación matemática

Elemento beam: Dos nodos definen un elemento Beam tridimensional prismático/no prismático.
Su formulación se basa en la teoría de vigas de Timoshenko, que tiene en cuenta los efectos de
rigidez de las deformaciones de tensión/compresión, cortante, flexión y torsión.

Estos elementos Beam, cumplen la función de resistir los momentos con respecto al eje
perpendicular al plano del elemento Wall. Cada elemento Beam, en uno de sus extremos, tiene un
moment release con respecto al su eje local y, de esta manera transfiere el momento solamente al
nodo correspondiente del elemento Wall.
Elemento Plane-Stress:

Tres o cuatro nodos ubicados en el mismo plano definen un elemento Plane-Stress. Este elemento
se utiliza generalmente para modelar membranas que tienen un espesor uniforme en el plano de
cada elemento. Las cargas sólo pueden aplicarse en la dirección de su propio plano. Este elemento
se plantea de acuerdo con la formulación isoparamétrica de esfuerzos planos con modos
incompatibles (Isoparametric Plane Stress Formulation with Incompatible Modes). Así, se parte de la
premisa de que no existen componentes de esfuerzo en las direcciones fuera del plano y que las
deformaciones en las direcciones fuera del plano pueden obtenerse a partir de los efectos de
Poisson.
 2. Elemento Wall-Plate
El elemento Wall-Plate es adecuado para modelar muros diseñados para resistir cargas en su
plano, así como momentos flexionantes fuera de su plano. Un elemento Wall-Plate, se compone de
un elemento Plate (Shell) + 4 elementos Beam:

Elementos finitos del elemento Wall-Plate: Beam y Plate (Shell)

Formulación matemática

Elemento Beam: Dos nodos definen un elemento Beam tridimensional prismático/no prismático.
Su formulación se basa en la teoría de vigas de Timoshenko, que tiene en cuenta los efectos de
rigidez de las deformaciones de tensión/compresión, cortante, flexión y torsión.

Estos elementos Beam, cumplen la función de resistir los momentos con respecto al eje
perpendicular al plano del elemento Wall. Cada elemento Beam, en uno de sus extremos, tiene un
moment release con respecto al su eje local y, de esta manera transfiere el momento solamente al
nodo correspondiente del elemento Wall.

Elemento Plate: El elemento Plate de midas Gen es un elemento de 3 o 4 nodos (Observe que el
elemento Wall-Plate está formado por un Plate de 4 nodos). Su rigidez se formula en dos
direcciones, rigidez axial y cortante en el plano y rigidez a flexión y cortante fuera del plano. La
rigidez fuera del plano incluye dos tipos de elementos:

• Thin Plates: Formulados de acuerdo con la teoría de placas delgadas de Kirchhoff (Discrete
Kirchhoff element)
• Thick Plates: Formulados de acuerdo con la teoría de placas gruesas de Mindlin – Reissner
(Discrete Kirchhoff-Mindlin element)
La rigidez en el plano incluye 2 tipos de elementos:

• Elementos Triangulares: Linear Strain Triangle (LST)

• Elementos Cuadriláteros: Isoparametric Plane Stress Formulation with Incompatible

Modes
 Types of Elements and Important Considerations

Wall Element

 Introduction

Wall elements are used to model shear walls, which retain the shape of a
rectangle or square. The direction of gravity must be set opposite to the direction
of the GCS Z-axis. The elements retain in-plane tension/compression stiffness in
the vertical direction, in-plane shear stiffness in the horizontal direction, out-of-
plane bending stiffness and rotational stiffness about the vertical direction.

Two types of wall elements included in MIDAS/Gen are:

 Wall element type 1 (Membrane type):

in-plane stiffness + rotational stiffness about the vertical direction

 Wall element type 2 (Plate type):

in-plane stiffness + rotational stiffness about the vertical direction + out-
of-plane bending stiffness

Wall element type 1 (membrane type) is generally used to model shear walls
being subjected to in-plane loads only. Whereas, Wall element type 2 (plate type) is
suitable for modeling common walls intended to resist in-plane loads as well as
out-of-plane bending moments.

Shear walls are generally modeled with 4-node plane stress elements, which best
reflect the characteristics of shear walls. The plane stress elements included in
most finite element programs, however, are not readily applicable for shear walls.
This type of element does not have rotational stiffness about the axis
perpendicular to the plane of the element at the connecting nodes. When flexural
beams are connected to the wall element’s nodes, incompatibility in degrees of
freedom results. Moreover, additional transformation process is required for
design because all element forces are produced in terms of nodal forces or
stresses rather than wall member forces and moments.

In MIDAS/Gen, a new improved algorithm is used to overcome the limitation

described above. This algorithm, if necessary, allows you to select out-of-plane
bending stiffness to be included in the analysis.

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Analysis Manual for MIDAS/Gen

The procedure for modeling wall elements in MIDAS/Gen is as follows:

 See “Model> 1. Enter the story data for the building.

Building> Story”
of On-line Manual.
2. Enter wall elements. Note that elements must be rectangles of squares.
Only one wall element is permitted at a given story vertically, i.e., the
height of an element is one story high.

3. Enter the wall (combination) ID and specify the type of elements,

considering whether or not the out-of-plane bending stiffness is to be
included.

Walls in general structures are consisted of combinations of single (linear in

plan) individual walls, thereby forming different geometric configurations. Each
wall (group) is defined by entering individual unit wall elements. In order to
reflect the true stiffness of combined walls individual wall elements are assigned
with wall (combination) IDs.

Member forces of wall elements are produced for each story by wall IDs. If two
or more wall elements at a given floor are numbered with a same wall ID, they
are recognized as a single wall structure and each element force is combined
together for the force output. However, wall elements assigned with an identical
wall ID but located at different floors are recognized as distinct wall structures.
Accordingly, it would be advisable to assign the same wall ID to all wall
elements located in the same plan throughout all the floors in order to avoid
confusion.

As illustrated in Figure 1.39 (b), 5 wall elements are required for modeling the
wall structure shown in Figure 1.39 (a). Figure 1.39 (c) shows the output
configuration when each element is assigned with different wall IDs to design
them separately. The element forces are produced in the ECS of each element.
Figure 1.39 (d) illustrates the output configuration for the case where 5 elements
are designed as a single unit wall structure. In this case, all elements have the
same wall ID. The forces for the assembled wall structure are produced at the
centroid. The resulting forces are expressed in the ECS of the first element
defined.

The stiffness of the combined wall, (a) is reflected in the structural analysis
irrespective of wall ID numbering.

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 Types of Elements and Important Considerations

E# : Element number W# : Wall ID

(a) Wall structure (b) Elements constituting the wall structure

(c) Different wall IDs are assigned to each element

(d) Same wall ID is assigned to all (e) W1 is assigned to Wall elements E1,
elements E2 & E3. E4 and E5 are assigned with
W2 and W3 respectively.

Figure 1.39 Element forces for different combinations of wall elements (Membrane Type)

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Analysis Manual for MIDAS/Gen

 Element d.o.f. and the ECS

Wall element type 1 (membrane type) retains displacement d.o.f in the ECS x
and z-directions and rotational d.o.f. about the ECS y-axis. Whereas, Wall
element type 2 (plate type) has three translational and three rotational d.o.f.
(refer to Figure 1.40).

 Sheary and Momentz The ECS uses x, y and z-axes in the Cartesian coordinate system, following the
are additional right hand rule.
components produced
only for wall elements (Parallel with the GCS z-axis)
with out-of-plane
bending stiffness.

Axial Force
Torque Momentz Shearz

N3

Top End Momenty

(Story Level) N4
Sheary

Sheary N2
Origin of the ECS Bottom End
Momenty (Story Level)

N1
Shearz
Momentz Torque

Axial Force

Figure 1.40 ECS and sign convention of a wall element assigned with a Wall ID

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 Types of Elements and Important Considerations

The ECS x-axis is set parallel with the GCS Z-axis by default. The ECS z-axis is
determined by the direction defined from the first node (N1) to the second node
(N2), which are in turn used to define the range of target elements for a given
Wall ID (refer to Figure 1.40). The perpendicular axis to the x-z plane becomes
the ECS y-axis.

When more than two wall elements are assigned with the same Wall ID number,
the member forces are produced in the ECS of the first element (the element
with the smallest element number). Refer to Figure 1.41.

Connecting nodes must be entered from the bottom up. The nodes at the top and
bottom of an element must be located in a plane parallel to the global X-Y plane.
All the nodes must lie in a single plane. You should exercise caution when
defining elements, as the ECS is defined according to the node numbering order.

 Functions related to the elements

Create Elements
Material: Material properties
Thickness: Thickness of the element

 Output for element forces

The sign convention for element forces is shown in Figure 1.41. The arrows
represent the positive (+) directions.

Element forces are produced for each story by Wall IDs.

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Analysis Manual for MIDAS/Gen

X (Parallel with the GCS z-axis)

Top End
(Story Level)
Axial Force Shearz
Centroid of Combined Wall
Torque Momentz

Momenty
Sheary

Wall element 3
Wall element 1 Bottom End
Z
Wall element 2 (Story Level)
Shearz
Momentz
Sheary
First element used Moment
Y y
for wall combination
Torque
Axial Force
Origin of the ECS for Combined Wall

(a) When all wall elements of the same Wall ID is in the same plane

(Parallel with the GCS z-axis)

Centroid of Combined Wall Axial Force

Torque
Shearz
Momentz

Top End Momenty Sheary

(Story Level)
Wall element 1
Wall element 2

Sheary
First element used
for wall combination Momenty Bottom End
Momentz (Story Level)
Shearz Torque Origin of the ECS
for Combined Wall
Axial Force

(b) When all wall elements of the same Wall ID are not in the same plane

Figure 1.41 ECS and sign convention of combined walls when two or more elements
are assigned with the same Wall ID

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 Types of Elements and Important Considerations

Figure 1.42 Sample output of wall element forces

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