LATERAL RESISTANCE OF FRAME-SHEAR WALL STRUCTURES

Abstract

The migration of rural popul-ation to metropolitan cities in the middle of the nineteenth century caused severe pressure on the space which gave an impetus to the construction of high rise build-ings. The complex interaction between the walls, floor slabs, service cores and frames, which comprise a shear wall structure, has opened a new era in the high rise construction to meet the growing demand of urbanisation all over the world. A shear wall is defined as a system providing stability against lateral loads by virtue of its high-in-plane stiffness. The use of shear walls of various configuration makes the entire structure economical besides exercising a control on deflections. The shear wall structures exist in various formsbut the interaction of the frame and shear wall needs consideration. Basically two methods viz. manual and computer methods, have been discussed. A suitable computer programme based on the stiffness approach incor-porating the wide column frame analogy has been developed in Fortran-IV language. A parametric study of various walls was carried out to compare the relative stiffnesses.based on relevant parameters. The load sharing between the wall and the frame has been studied. The otudy proves that it is highly uneconomical to consider entire lateral load on the wall; the wall and frame share it in proportion to their relative stiffnesses.