Student/Graduate Introduction into Shear Walls

1.0 Shear Walls

Relevant Literature:
Buick Davidson & Graham W Owens (2007). Steel Designers Manual. 6th ed. London:
Blackwell.
pp. 73-74
Source: Copy owned by Peter Forster
SCI-178 Design for Construction, 1997
pp. 14, 15, 65, 66
Source: IHS
A.W. Irwin CIRIA Report 102, Design of Shear Wall Buildings, 1984
Source: IHS
IStructE, Manual for the design of concrete building structures to Eurocode 2, 2006
pp. 17, 66, 70, 107
Source: IHS
APA, Diaphragms and Shear Walls,
Source: IHS
J.A. Baird & E.C. Ozelton, Timber Designers Manual 2nd ed. 1984
pp. 560-567
Source: Copy owned by Lowry Manson
Structural Guidance Notes, Hand Analysis of Simple, Linked and Coupled Shear Wall
source: Richard Nicholl
W.G Curtin, G Shaw, J.K Beck & W.A Bray, Design of Brick Diaphragm Walls
Source: IHS
IStructE, Manual for the Design of Plain Masonry in Building Structures to Eurocode 6, 2008
Source: IHS

Codes of Practice:
BS 5628-1:2005
BS 5628-2:2005
BS 8110-1:1997
BS EN 1996-2:2006
BS EN 1996-3:2006
BS EN 1998-1:2004
BS EN 1998-3:2005

Note: All literature and BS can be found in the Shear Wall file under technical literature in the G
drive.

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Student/Graduate Introduction into Shear Walls

1.1 Design
Shear walls offer a structurally efficient means of enclosing and utilising space. Their stiffness
is such that sway movement under wind load can be minimized. Shear walls are also known as
Vertical Diaphragms in America. There are three main types of Shear Wall:
1.

Simple Shear Wall: A simple shear wall is a vertical cantilever wall, to which a lateral load is
applied, and the wall transmits this load to the foundations.
2.
Coupled Shear Wall: Two walls in line which are joined
together by connecting beams so that they ac as one composite stiffening element to a greater
or lesser degree.
3. Linked Shear Wall: Two or more walls in line which are jointed together by linking beams but
which act as separate elements.
A connecting beam is simply a beam, lintel or strip of slab which effectively connects together two walls
so that they act as cone combined stiffening element. A linking beam is one which joins two walls but is
considered too slender to be effective of has been assumed to take no part in connecting the elements
together.
Shear walls should be designed as vertical cantilevers, and the reinforcement arrangement should be checked as
for a beam. Where the shear walls have returns at the compression end, they should be treated as flanged beams.
This guide assumes that shear walls are sufficiently stiff that global second order effects do not need to be
considered. The walls should be sized such that:

FV , Ed 0.517

ns
(n s 1.6)

cm

Ic

Where: FV, Ed is the total vertical load (on the whole structure stabilised by the wall)
ns is the number of storeys
L is the total height of building above level of moment restraint
Ecm is the mean modulus of elasticity
Ic is the second moment of area (uncracked concrete section) of the wall(s).
This assumes that:
Torsional instability is not governing, i.e. structure is reasonably symmetrical
Global shear deformations are negligible (as in a bracing system mainly consisting of shear walls
without large openings)
Base rotations are negligible
The stiffness of the wall is reasonably constant throughout the height
The total vertical load increases by approximately the same amount per storey.
In the above equation for FV, Ed it should be noted that the value 0.517 should be halved if the wall is likely to be
cracked.
More detailed design calculations should be carried out using computer analysis.
The advantages of shear walls are:
The beam-to-column connections throughout the frame are simple, easily fabricated and rapidly erected.
Shear walls tend to be thinner than other bracing systems and hence save space in congested areas such
as service and lift cores.

They are very rigid and highly effective.

They act as fire compartment walls

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Student/Graduate Introduction into Shear Walls

The disadvantages of shear walls are:

The construction of walls, particularly in low- and medium-rise buildings, is slow and less
accurate than steelwork.
The walls are difficult to modify if alterations to the building are required in the future.
They are a separate form of construction, which is likely to delay the contract programme.
It is difficult to provide connections between steel and concrete to transfer the large forces
generated.

Concrete Shear Walls:

Monolithic shear walls can be classified as either short, squat or cantilever according to their height
depth ratio (Figure 1), their walls may be planar, flanged or core in shape.

Figure 1: Height/Depth Ratios of Monolithic Shear Walls, CIRIA Report 102, 1984

In many cases, when a shear wall is used the walls are pierced by openings such that the behaviour of
the individual wall sections is coupled to a variable degree, depending on the proportion of the walls
and connecting beams.
The plan distribution of walls should be such that the building is torsionally, as well as flexurally, stiff
(figure 2). In rectangular plan buildings, shear walls are often placed at the extremities of the building
in order to resist load on the wider face of the building. In the orthogonal direction, frame action may
be utilised. Wind resisting cores (rather than pierced shear walls) are usually preferred internally within
buildings.

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Student/Graduate Introduction into Shear Walls

Walls are usually designed as compression elements under the combined action of in-place bending
and axial forces. Lateral restraints are required at each floor level and adequate tie reinforcement
should be provided. The wall should be braced against relative translation of its ends. The compressive
resistance of a wall element is a function of it slenderness effective height/thickness (eh/t). The
effective height may be taken as 0.75 x Storey height if the wall is fully restrained at is ends. Where the
wall is connected to a flexible floor element, the use of the full storey height is more appropriate. In
design of slabs with slenderness ratio higher than 12, out-of-plane moment transfer from the slabs and
destabilising moment from eccentricity of axial loads should be taken account of.
The minimum amount of reinforcement varies with the design reinforcement varies with the design
requirement. A minimum percentage of 0.25% high yield steel or 0.3% mild steel both horizontally and
vertically is usually required for shrinkage and temperature reasons.

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Student/Graduate Introduction into Shear Walls

Figure 2: Plan distribution of shear walls, CIRIA report 102, 1984

Figure 4: Typical Floor Layout to Maximise Prestressed effects. IStructE Design Manual to Eurocode 4

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Student/Graduate Introduction into Shear Walls

Figure 5: Layout of shear walls to reduce loss of prestress and

cracking effects. IStructE Design Manual to Eurocode 4

Masonry Shear Walls:

Design Criteria:
1. Masonry buildings shall be composed of floors and walls, which are connected in two
orthogonal horizontal directions and in the vertical direction.
2. The connection between the floors and walls shall be provided by steel ties or reinforced
concrete ring beams.
3. Any type of floors may be used, provided that the general requirements of continuity and
effective diaphragm action are satisfied.
4. P Shear walls shall be provided in at least two orthogonal directions.
5. Shear walls should conform to certain geometric requirements, namely:
the effective thickness of shear walls, tef, may not be less than a minimum value, tef, min;
the ratio hef /tef of the effective wall height (see EN 1996-1-1:2004) to its effective
thickness may not exceed a maximum value, (hef /tef)max; and
The ratio of the length of the wall, l, to the greater clear height, h, of the openings
adjacent to the wall, may not be less than a minimum value, (l/h) min.

Shear walls not conforming to the minimum geometric requirements of condition 5 may be considered
as secondary seismic elements. They should conform to conditions 1 and 2.
Depending on the product ag.S at the site and the type of construction, the allowable number of storeys
above ground, n, should be limited and walls in two orthogonal directions with a minimum total crosssectional area Amin, in each direction, should be provided. The minimum cross-sectional area is
expressed as a minimum percentage, pA,min, of the total floor area per storey.

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Student/Graduate Introduction into Shear Walls

The shear walls of the building should fulfill all of the following conditions:
a) The building should be stiffened by shear walls, arranged almost symmetrically in plan in two
orthogonal directions;
b) A minimum of two parallel walls should be placed in two orthogonal directions, the length of each
wall being greater than 30% of the length of the building in the direction of the wall under
consideration;
c) At least for the walls in one direction, the distance between these walls should be greater than 75%
of the length of the building in the other direction;
d) At least 75% of the vertical loads should be supported by the shear walls;
e) Shear walls should be continuous from the top to the bottom of the building.
In cases of low seismicity the wall length required may be provided by the cumulative length of the
shear walls in one axis, separated by openings. In this case, at least one shear wall in each direction
should have a length, l, not less than that corresponding to twice the minimum value of l/h.
In both orthogonal horizontal directions the difference in mass and in the horizontal shear wall crosssectional area between adjacent storeys should be limited to a maximum value of m,max and A,max.
For un-reinforced masonry buildings, walls in one direction should be connected with walls in the
orthogonal direction at a maximum spacing of 7 m.

Shear Walls in Steel Frames:

When reinforced concrete or masonry elements are present in a steel frame building, the designer can
profit by using these stiff elements to resist lateral loads. A typical example is a building with a
reinforced concrete lift shaft, to which the steelwork can be attached. Similarly, masonry walls forming
in-fill panels between steel columns can replace bracing members by providing in-plane stiffness.

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Student/Graduate Introduction into Shear Walls

The ideal position for a shear wall is on the

line of the lateral loads, to avoid eccentric
loading. Examples of structurally efficient and
less efficient locations are shown in Figure 3.
Clearly, there will be many other constraints on
the position of a wall or lift shaft which may
make eccentric loading unavoidable. In such
cases the steel frame will require some
additional bracing members to prevent
torsional displacement of the building. The
position of this additional bracing for the
particular examples is shown in the figure. The
mechanism by which the bracing resists torsion
is also indicated for one of the examples .

Figure 3: Steel Construction Institute, Design for Construction

Timber Shear Walls:

See Timber Design Guide, or Timber Designers Manual (Lowry Manson).

Force Actions
In limit-state design, forces are multiplied by their appropriate load factors to equate to the structural
strength. Load factors are related to the levels of probability of loading and the possible combinations
of load.

Loadings/ Movements:
Dead load: Structural and dead weight are important as they contribute to the overturning resistance of
the foundations. Certain shear wall elements receive relatively little vertical load in comparison to
lateral load, which they are required to resist. Serious under-estimates of dead load can lead to
increased dynamic response.
Imposed load: Intensities of prescribed floor loading depend on the use of the building. All floors may
be considered to be uniformly loaded in assessing overall structural action
Wind load: Lateral loading often dictates the proportions of a shear wall building. Wind loading is
characterised by a design wind speed at a certain recurrence period. In the design of buildings, a 1-in50 year recurrence win is used to assess the ultimate strength of the structure.
Both the steady and the gust components of the wind contribute to the structural response. The increase
in load over that of the building considered quasi-statically (i.e. as a rigid structure) is termed the
dynamic magnification of load.
Seismic loading: Ground accelerations from seismic activity can be the principal design condition.
This is usually expressed in terms of equivalent lateral loading.
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Student/Graduate Introduction into Shear Walls

Creep/ Shrinkage of Concrete: These effects take place over a number of years, and they may be
estimated using information found in the design guide for pre-stressed concrete.
Temperature: Differential temperature movement between the roof and internal floors and the
basement, or between exposed and shaded sides of the building or exposed and insulted members can
be significant.
Out-of-plumb Walls: Because of sway displacements, construction tolerances, and differential
settlement, the enhanced moment resulting from axial loading should be taken into account during
design.
Note: More detail and relevant factors can be found in the specific design guides for the individual
loadings.

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