SC 342

DESIGN OF SHEAR WALL

STRUCTURES

1.0: WALLS IN BUILDINGS

1.1. Function, types and loads on walls
A wall is defined in BS 8110: Part 1, clause 1.2.4, as a
vertical load bearing member whose length exceeds four
times its thickness. This definition distinguishes a wall from
a column.
All buildings contain walls the function of which is to carry
loads, enclose and divide space, exclude weather and
retain heat.
Walls may be classified into the following classes
1.Internal non-load bearing walls of blockwork or light
movable partitions that divide space only
2.External curtain walls that carry self weight and lateral
wind loads
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3. External and internal infill walls in framed structures that

may be designed to provide stability to the building but
do not carry vertical building loads; external walls would
also carry lateral wind loads
4. Load bearing walls designed to carry vertical building
loads and horizontal lateral load and in-plane wind loads
and provide stability.
Type 4 may be considered as structural concrete walls, i.e.
shear walls, which can further be classified as:
(a) A braced wall: Is a wall where reactions to lateral forces
are provided by lateral supports such as floors or crosswalls
(b) An un-braced wall: Is a wall providing its own lateral
stability such as cantilever wall
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(c) A stocky wall: Is a wall where the effective height

divided by the thickness, le/h, does not exceed 15 for a
braced wall or 10 for an un-braced wall
(d) A slender wall: Is a wall other than a stocky wall

1.2: Shear walls

What are shear walls?
are vertical structural elements with a dual role of resisting
both the gravity and lateral loads.

1.2.1 Structural features

wall thickness varies from 150 mm to 400 mm,
depending on the number of stories, building age, and
thermal insulation requirements.
walls generally start at foundation level and are
continuous throughout the building height
wall must be symmetrical located in plan to reduce ill
effects of twists in buildings (Figure 1)
Shear walls are more effective when located along exterior
perimeter of the building such a layout increases
resistance of the building to twisting
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Figure 1: Reinforced Concrete shear walls in buildings

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RC buildings without
shear walls structures

Damage of beam-column joint

Soft and weak storey

1.2.2 Advantages of shear walls

are easy to construct, because reinforcement detailing
of walls is relatively straight-forward and therefore
easily implemented at site.
are efficient, both in terms of construction cost and
effectiveness in minimizing lateral damage in
structural and non-structural elements (like glass
windows and building contents)
provide large strength and stiffness to buildings in the
direction of their orientation, which significantly reduces
lateral sway of the building and thereby reduces
damage to structure and its contents
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1.2.3 Disadvantages of shear walls

shear walls present barriers, which may interfere with
architectural and services requirement.
lateral load resistance in shear wall buildings is usually
concentrated on a few walls rather than on large
number of columns.
since shear walls carry large lateral forces, the
overturning effects on them are large. Thus, design of
their foundations requires special attention.

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1.3: Basic considerations

Checking the stability of a building against horizontal forces
is imperative, particularly wind loads, which acts in the form
of pressure or suction on the exterior walls, window or
faade elements. From there they are led into the floor
slabs, which are acting as nearly rigid diaphragms. These
diaphragm slabs are supported horizontally by the stiffening
shear walls, which are acting like vertical cantilevers
clamped into the foundation slab.

Foundation uplift should be

avoided by increasing the size of
the wall footing. If footing size
becomes excessive, possible
solutions are:
(a) mat foundation11

NOTE: A conservative assumption is to neglect columns

and girders for horizontal load analysis, although they do
contribute to the horizontal stability of the building.
w
w

(k N /m )

(k N /m )
1

C o lu m n s n e g le c te d

Figure 1.0: Columns and beams neglected

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The wind load acts as a surface load (kN/m 2), which

usually increases with the altitude above ground level.
For design purposes it can be assumed to be constant.
The substitute constant wind load can be determined in
such a way that the bending moment at foundation level
is equal to that one which belongs to the actual wind load
(Figure 1.2a).
For consideration of the whole building as a cantilever
beam, it is helpful to determine the line loads, in order to
compute the lumped moments and shear forces of the
whole building (Figure 1.2b), thus:

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y ,o

w
p

p
p

z ,o

Area loads
1

wx, wy in kN/m2

Line loads

pz ,O wz b
p y , O wy a

y
w

p
a

in kN/m

Figure 1.2a: Plan

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li

i
x

+
p
z or y

i i

V i [k N ]

2
i i

l /2

M i [k N m ]

Figure 1.2b: Moment and shear force diagram

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1.4: Overall geometry of the shear walls

Shear walls are rectangular in cross-section, i.e., one
dimension of the cross-section is much larger than the
other.
L- and U-shaped
sections are also
used.
A thin-walled hollow
RC shafts around the
elevator core of
buildings also act as
shear walls.

Figure 1.3: Typical shear walls

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1.3: Structural layout of the shear walls

The major considerations in selecting a structural system
for a multistory building with shear walls are:
The building must have enough rigidity to withstand
the service loads without excessive deflections or
vibrations,
It is desirable that the wall be loaded with enough
vertical load to resist any uplift of parts of the wall
foundations due to lateral walls,
The locations of frames and walls should minimize
tensional deformations of the building about the
vertical axis of the building,

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 The walls must have adequate strength in shear and

in combined flexure and axial loads,
The wall must have enough cover on the
reinforcement, and
Multiple walls should be used to minimize demands
on footings.

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1.5: Stable and unstable system

1.5.1: Statically determinate shear wall system
A shear wall system is called statically determinate if only
three (wall-type) shear walls are acting together in one
floor plan. For a statically determinate system the wind
load distribution key can be determined very easily by
applying conditions of equilibrium only. For the load case
wz in Fig. 1.2a we obtain the following:

p1 p 2 p z ,0 / 2
p3 0
For the load case wy we see clearly that the force p3 has
to balance py,o, viz. p3 = py,o
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The remaining moment, i.e. M e p y ,0 a / 2

has to be taken by a couple of forces formed by p1 and p2

p'1 p'2 0
p y ,0 a / 2 p'2 b
Thus;

p'2 p y ,0 a / 2b
p'1 p'2 p y ,0 a / 2b

The shares p1, p2, p3 are line loads (kN/m) which

produce shear forces and bending moments in the walls
(i.e. Figure 1.2b)

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1.5.2: Statically indeterminate shear wall system

When there are more than three walls then the problem is
statically indeterminate and, as a rule, the stiffnesses have
to be determined for a proper solution.
Statically determinate systems are seldom to be found
in practice, most structures are statically indeterminate.
For better comprehension of the general solution it might
be recommendable to differentiate the indeterminate
system into those with a symmetric arrangement of the
shear walls (symmetric systems) and those with an
arbitrary arrangement (non-symmetric systems).

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(a )

(d )
N e g lig ib le lo a d
re s is ta n c e in
y - d ire c tio n

(b )

(e)

(c )
S ta b le s y s te m

(f)
U n s ta b le s y s te m

Figure 1.4: Stable and unstable shear wall systems

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Generally, the relative lateral deflection in any one storey should not
exceed thestorey height divided by 500.
The figure below shows the deflected profiles for a shear wall and a
rigid frame.

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 One way to limit the sway of buildings and provide

stability is to increase the section sizes of the members
to create a rigid, moment-resisting frame. However, this
method increases storey heights, thus increasing the
building cost. It is rarely used for more than 7 or 8
storeys.
Another way is to provide stiff, shear resisting walls liked
to a flexible frame. These can be external walls or
internal walls around lift shafts and stair wells (a core) or
sometimes both are provided.

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 STRUCTURAL FORMS OF SHEAR WALLS:

Monolithic shear walls are classified as short, squat or
cantilever according to their height to depth ratio

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 POSITIONING OF SHEAR WALLS:

The shape and plan position of the shear wall influences the behavior
of the structure considerably. Structurally, the best position for the
shear walls is in the centre of each half of the building. This is rarely
practical, however, since it dictates the utilization of the space, so
they are positioned at the ends.

This shape and position of the walls give good flexural

stiffness in the short direction, but relies on the stiffness
of the frame in the other direction.
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This arrangement provides good flexural stiffness

in both directions, but may cause problems from restraint
or shrinkage. As does this arrangement with a single core,
but which does not have the problem from restraint of shrinkage.

However, this arrangement lacks the good torsional stiffness of the

previous arrangements due to the eccentricity of the core.
If the core remains in this position then it must be designed
explicitly for the torsion. It is far preferable to adopt a symmetrical
arrangement to avoid this.

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1.5.2.1: Symmetric system

If a horizontal load acts in the axis of symmetry of a
symmetric system, the displacements of every shear wall
in every floor are the same, because the diaphragms force
all elements to a uniform and affined bending behavior
(Figure 1.5).
If we denote the displacements of the origin of the
coordinate system by wo and the displacement of a single
wall by wi we can describe this fact by:
w(x) = wo(x) = w1(x) = w2(x) = wi(x) = wn(x) ....(1.1)

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If all displacements in a certain level x are equal, the

individual load-effects can be obtained from the total
ones according to the ratio of individual bending stiffness
to total bending stiffness (basic equation of the
deformation method):

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1.5.3 Non-Symmetric Systems

We distinguish the following coordinate systems, as shown
in Figure 1.6.

A general one, with y z axes , where

the origin of which lies at an
arbitrary point O

A special one, with y z axes , where

the origin of which lies at the shear
center So of the lumped beam

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The longitudinal axis of the building is the x-axis.

Displacements in y- direction are called v, displacements in
z-direction are called w. Forces get an index y or z
according to the direction of the adjacent axis. The
coordinates o and o of the shear center are not yet known;
they have to be calculated. The index 0 (zero) will be used,
if any property of the lumped system is to be described. As
counterpart to the single or individual element we use the
expression total or lumped, if the lumped system is
meant.
In a first step we consider the case pure bending i.e. all
forces are acting on the shear center, and in a second step
the cases pure torsion i.e. the torsional moments are
obtained by multiplying the horizontal resultant force by the
eccentricity e.
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assumptions
The sum of all deviational moments is zero:
EI yz ,i 0
The torsional stiffness of a single shear wall is zero: GI 0 , EI 0
T ,i
w ,i
All cross-sections and load functions are constant over the height.
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1.5.3.1 Pure Bending

We assume that a shear center So of the lumped system exists with
the property that a horizontal force acting on S will yield to pure
translational displacements without rotation of the floor plan.
Afterwards this assumption has to be proved. The shear center So of
the system is comparable with the shear center Si of a single beam.
We shall see that the shear center is at the same time the pivot for
torsional moments, which also corresponds to the well-known relations
of the individual beam. In a first step we shift the horizontal force into
the shear center and study the case of pure bending. We obtain the
following relations for the load case Pyo:

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1.5.3.2 Pure Torsion

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Equ. (3.1) can be used to determine the displacements of the

individual shear walls. Normally the displacements are of no interest;
what is needed are the internal forces of the individual walls, e.g. Q y,n;
Qz,n; My,n; Mz,n; which can be computed if the partial loads py,n and Pz,n
are known. This can easily be obtained by introducing Equ. (3.1) into
Equ. (3.2) which leads to the individual shear forces Qy,n and Qz,n:

Q y ,n ( x )

EI Z ,n Z n
.M x ,o ( x )
2
2
( EI y ,i yi EI z ,i Z i )

.(3.2)

EI Z ,n Z n
Q z ,n ( x )
.M x ,o ( x )
2
2
( EI y ,i yi EI z ,i Z i )
Differentiation of Equ. (3.2) leads to the individual forces P y,n and Pz,n,
integration to the individual bending moments My,n and Mz,n.
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q y ,n

( EI

EI z ,n Z n
y ,i

y EI z )
z
i

2
z ,i i

m x ,o
.(3.3)

q z ,n

( EI

EI z ,n yn
y ,i

y EI z )
z
i

2
z ,i i

m x ,o

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The signs depend on the definition of shear forces and moments.

This varies from text-book to text-book; in this chapter the signs
of the above mentioned internal forces are defined in Fig. 4.5.

M z ,n

l x

m x ,o

z
( EI y ,i yi EI z ,i zi ) 2
EI z ,n Z n

.(3.4)

M y ,n

l x

m x ,o

z
( EI y ,i yi EI z ,i zi ) 2
EI z ,n yn

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