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 Shear wall, is used to described a wall

that resists lateral wind or earthquake
loads acting parallel to the plane of the
wall in addition to the gravity loads
from the floors and roof adjacent to
the wall.
Such walls are referred to as Structural walls in ACI code
Chapter 21

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 Shear
Wall

Link
Beam

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The strength and behavior of short, one or two story shear
wall (as shown in Fig. 18-4a) generally are dominated by
shear.

hw/lw ≤ 2

ACI Code Chapter 11

or the
strut-and-tie method in ACI Code Appendix A
If a wall is more than three or four stories in height, lateral
loads are resisted mainly by flexural action of the vertical
cantilever wall rather than shear action.

hw/lw ≥ 3

ACI Code Chapter 10 and 11

Shear-wall-frame
- Shown schematically in Fig. 18-6, are used in building
ranging from 8 up to about 30 stories. The lateral load is
resisted in part by the wall and in part by the frame.
 A common design recommendation is to minimize
the separation, commonly referred to as the eccentricity,
between the CM and the CR provided by the shearwalls
and moment resisting frame in lateral-load system.
 When a building structure is subjected to a large lateral displacements due to
earthquake ground motions, the stiffness of the lateral-load resisting members are
likely to change in a nonuniform fashion. As a result, the CR is likely to be relocated
and the eccentricity between the CM and CR may increase. To account for this, the
IBC Code (18 – 14) specifies a minimum eccentricity in the two principal directions
that must be added to any calculated eccentricity. For structures where substantial
torsional moments may be generated, a wide distribution of shearwall around the
perimeter of the floor plan would be most efficient for resisting that torsion.
1. Located symmetrically to reduce ill effects of twist
2. Symmetry can be along one or both the directions
3. Can be located at exterior or interior
4. More effective when located along exterior perimeter of building

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Loading and Failure Mechanisms
Shear wall is stiffer in its principal axis than it is in the other
axis. It is considered as a primary structure which provides
relatively stiff resistance to vertical and horizontal forces
acting in its plane.

Under this combined loading condition, a shear wall

develops compatible axial, shear, torsional and flexural
strains, resulting in a complicated internal stress distribution.
In this way, loads are transferred vertically to the building's
foundation.

The factors determining the failure mechanism include

geometry, loading, material properties, restraint, and
construction.
 Provide large strength and stiffness in the direction of
orientation.

 Significantly reduces lateral sway.

 Easy construction, implementation and fast

construction.

 Efficient in terms of construction cost and

effectiveness in minimizing earthquake damage.

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 (a)The thickness of the shear wall should not be less than
150mm to avoid unusually thin sections.

(b)The minimum reinforcement in the longitudinal and

transverse directions in the plan of the wall should be taken as
0.0025 times the gross area in each direction.

(c)For walls with thickness greater than 250mm,

distributed reinforcement for each direction shall be placed
in two layers parallel with wall faces.

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