Walls in Building

FUNCTIONS, TYPES AND LOADS ON

WALLS
All buildings contain walls the function of which is to carry loads, enclose

and divide space, exclude weather and retain heat. Walls may classified
into the following types:
1. internal non-load bearing walls of block work or light movable partitions
that divide space only
2. external curtain walls that carry self-weight and lateral wind loads

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; the external walls would also carry lateral wind loads

4. Load bearing walls designed to carry vertical building loads and

horizontal lateral and in-plane wind loads and provide stability

The role of the wall is seen clearly through the type of building in which
it is used.
Building types and walls provided are as follows:
(a) framed buildingswall types 1, 2 or 3
(b) Load bearing and shear wall building with no framewall types 1, 2
and 4
(c) combined frame and shear wall buildingwall types 1, 2 and 4
Type (c) is the normal multi-storey building.
A wall is defined in BS8110: 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.
Loads are applied to walls in the following ways:
1. Vertical loads from roof and floor slabs or beams supported by the
wall
2. Lateral loads on the vertical wall slab from wind, water or earth
pressure
3. Horizontal in-plane loads from wind when the wall is used to provide
lateral stability in a building as a shear wall

TYPES OF WALL AND DEFINITIONS

Structural concrete walls are classified into the
following two types:
1. A reinforced concrete wall is a wall containing at
least the minimum quantity of Reinforcement.
The reinforcement is taken into account in
determining the strength of the wall.
2. A plain concrete wall is a wall containing either
no reinforcement or insufficient reinforcement.
Any reinforcement in the wall is ignored when
considering strength. Reinforcement is provided
in most plain walls to control cracking.

Walls are further classified as follows:

1. A braced wall is a wall where reactions to lateral
forces are provided by lateral supports such as
floors or cross-walls;
2. An unbraced wall is a wall providing its own
lateral stability such as a cantilever wall;
3. 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 unbraced wall;
4. A slender wall is a wall other than a stocky wall.

Definitions