SHEAR WALL

References :

1. Hand book of Concrete Engineering by Lintel

2. Advanced Reinforced Concrete Design by P C Varghese
 Introduction
 Shear walls are concrete walls specially designed in
bldg. to resist lateral forces that are produced in
plane of wall due to Wind, Earthquake etc.

 Shear walls are generally provided in tall bldg. to

avoid total collapse of bldg. under lateral forces.
They are usually provided between columns, in
stair-wells, lift well, toilet ,utility shafts,etc.
Important properties of shear wall :

1. Good ductility under reversible / repeated

over loads.

2. Less bending tensile stresses due to lateral

loads.

3. Located symmetrical to avoid torsional

stresses.

4. Stiffness of shear wall is high in its own plane.

Typical arrangement of shear wall in building
• There is no limitation concern to the
geometrical shape of shear wall systems.

• The triangle, rectangle, angle, channel

and wide flanges are the common types
of geometrical forms.
 Types of Shear Walls
• Simple Rectangular Shear Wall

• Flanged Shear Wall

• Framed Shear Wall (with / without infilled wall)

• Coupled Shear Wall

• Column Supported Shear Wall

• Core Type Shear wall

 Simple shear wall

Shear wall with Flanges

Bar Bell type

Coupled shear wall

Column supported
Types of shear wall

Core type
Behavior of Shear Wall under Lateral Loads

• It is assumed that floors are infinitely stiff in

their plane and do not deformed.

• Deformation of frame is in Shear mode.

• Deformation of shear wall is in bending mode

rather than shear mode.
Deformation shape of shear wall under lateral loading
Deformation shape of Frame under lateral loading

(a)
Frame & Shear Wall Interaction
Interaction Forces

(a) (b) (c)

• Shear Wall : Vertical systems cantilever from the ground.
• Braced frames are like trusses, walls act like deep beams.

• Buildings that carry gravity loads using bearing walls,

typically also use the walls as shear walls.

The walls must be design to serve both duties.

Reactions:
Lateral Loads Only Gravity Only Lateral + Gravity

• The lateral loads induce two types of motion:

tipping and sliding.
• Tipping is rotation and sliding is translation.
• Vertical reactions counteract tipping.
• The reactions form a moment, resisting the rotation.
• Note the downward tension reaction.
• The gravity loads also counteract tipping.
• The wall can be viewed as a pre-stressed beam.
• The pre-stressing effect of gravity is generally beneficial.
(since it is usually costly to make foundations that can resist tension uplift)

• The combined compression of gravity plus overturning can be

very high.
• The lateral forces create an overturning moment, while the
gravity loads create a resisting moment.
• To avoid uplift forces on the foundation, the resisting moment
must be larger than the overturning moment.
• The resisting moment typically accounts only for dead loads.
• Horizontal reactions counteract sliding.
• The sum of the reactions for the wall are called the wall's
base shear
Vertical Normal Stress:
Lateral Loads Only Gravity Only Lateral + Gravity

• Gravity increases compression stresses and reduce

tension stresses.
• For gravity and lateral acting together, the distribution
of stresses is asymmetric, with most of the wall acting in
compression.
• The compressive effect of gravity increases the
compression and decreases the tension.
Shear Stress: Lateral Loads Only

The stresses increases moving down the wall

1. Simple Rectangle and Bar Bell type free standing Shear-Walls

Simple rectangular wall Bar bell type wall

* Subjected to bending and shear under action of vertical and horizontal

shear along its length.

Bar Bell Type walls : min. steel is put over inner 0.7 to 0.8 length L and
remaining steel is placed at end for a length 0.15 to 0.12 L on either side.
These are stronger and more ductile than the simple rectangular type.

Disadvantage

* During earthquake attract & dissipates a lot of energy by cracking, which

is difficult to repair.
 2. Coupled Shear Wall

coupling beams

Two structural walls are joined together by relatively short spandrel

beams to increase the stiffness of wall & structure dissipates energy
by yielding the coupling beams.
The walls should satisfy the following requirement
(a) The system should develop hinges only in coupling beam before shear
failure.
(b) The coupling beam should be designed to have good energy
dissipation characteristics.
Action of coupling beam is as shown, Refer Fig.1
The beam will bend in double curvature due to displacement & shear will
reduce the axial force.
If MP = Magnitude of plastic moment . Then,
N = Total reaction is given by
2M P
N   no .hinges . formed
Length .of .beam

Fig.1 : Action of coupled shear walls as energy dissipation device

(a) external forces & reactions of str. (b) action of coupling beams.
The diagonal steel (as shown in fig.2) is provided because even a large
amount of transverse steel for ductility is not effective.

Refer Cl.9.5 of IS:13920-1993 for design criterion.

 3. Rigid Frames with Shear Walls
Fig.3 Shows interaction of simple shear walls and rigid frames of a tall bldg.
In shear mode, frame & wall will deflect in bending mode. The interaction
reduces max.moment but max. shear increases, which will increase tendency
of shear failure.

Fig.3

a) action between frame & wall b) shears in wall c) moments in wall

4. Framed Shear Walls and Infilled Shear Walls

Framed walls are casted monolithically
Infilled walls are constructed by casting frames first and
infilling it with masonry or conc. block later.
 5. Column supported shear walls
This type of walls are constructed when ,
Shear walls are to be discontinued at floor level.

6. Core Type of Shear Walls

In some bldg. to withstand lateral loads, vertical core is provided
this can be sometimes elevators and other service areas. This type have
good resistance against torsion.
Classification according to behavior :

(a)Shear- shear walls –In which deflection and strength are

controlled by shear. Thus are usually low rise walls.

(b)Ordinary Moment walls- In which deflection and strength

are controlled by flexure. Thus are usually high rise shear
walls.

(c)Ductile Moment shear walls- These are special walls

meant for seismic region.
LOADS ON SHEAR WALLS
Centre of rigidity and Centre of Mass

1. Lateral Stiffness ( K) : It is defined as force required (applied at top of shear

wall) to produce unit lateral displacement.

2. Centre of Rigidity : It is defined as point on the horizontal plane through which

the lateral load should pass in order that there will be no rigid body rotation.
It’s coordinates are given by eqn.
K i xi K i yi
xr  and yr 
K i K i

3. Centre of Mass (i.e. C.G.)

Further, as lateral forces (due to earthquake) is proportional to mass,
m i xi m i yi
x  and y 
mi mi

Two cases arises from combination of centre of stiffness & centre of mass :
1. If both coincide, no torsion.
2. If do not coincide, twisting moment produced.
Principle of Shear Wall Analysis
Assumptions :
1. All horizontal loads are taken by various shear walls and not by frames.
2. Where there is no torsion, load is taken by each shear wall in proportion to its
stiffness as below,
EL = F1 + F2 + F3 - - - - - -
Where, EL – Earthquake Load &
F1,F2,F3 ---- Forces on various shear walls
F 1 = K1 
Where,  ---- displacement at top &
K1 ---- Lateral stiffness of shear wall
Hence, K1  + K2  + K3  + --- = EL

EL

K1  K 2  K 3    
K 1
F 1 = K1   EL
 K 1
 STIFFNESS OF WALL
There are three types of deflections to be considered :
W
Stiffness = Force required at top for unit deflection 

WH 3
1] 1 bending  (as cantilever )
3 EI
WH
2] 2 shear 
CAG

Where , C = Shape factor ( 0.8 for rectangle )

W = Load applied
E
G  (assume  = 0.22 )
2 (1   )
3] 3 is due to foundation rocking (rotation) ( Ref. Fig. next slide )

L1 / 2 L1 / 2
Moment due to
rotation θ M    Bx  xdxc  B   x 2 dx = (B L3 γ θ / 12)
 L1 / 2  L1 / 2
γ = Modulus of sub-grade reaction
 Let, R = ( B L3) / 12 is the moment produce due to unit rotation of foundation.
Rotation due to moment, WH
WH 
R
Hence, deflection produced = (Rotation )x (H)

WH 2
 3 rocking 
R
Hence, Total  = 1+ 2+ 3
Therefore, Lateral stiffness K = W includes bending, shear & rotation

DESIGN OF RECTANGULAR & FLANGED SHEAR WALL
The design-detailing shall be done as per IS 13920 (1993)
General dimensions
1. Thickness of wall ( t ) NOT < 150 mm.
2. For flanged wall ,effective extension of flange width beyond face of web
should be least of the following. (refer following fig.)
a. ½ dist. to a adjacent shear wall
b. 1/10th of total wall height
c. Actual width “L”

Boundary element

Plain shear walls with boundary element.

3.The portion along wall edges specially enlarged & strengthened by longitudinal and
transverse r/f (like column) is called Boundary element.
This should be provided, when comp. stress in extreme fibre exceeds 0.2 fck .&
when comp. stress is less than 0.15 fck the boundary element is discontinued.

(Note : If special confining steel is provided then boundary elements are not required)

Special confining
reinforcement shall
be provided over the
full height of a
column

Special Confining Reinforcement for Columns under discontinued wall

Following rules are to be observed for detailing of steel

1. Walls are to be provided with r/f in 2 orthogonal directions.

The min. steel ratios for each of the vertical and horizontal directions should be
> 0.0025
As
   0.0025
Ac ( gross )

2. If factored shear stress (v) exceeds 0.25fck or if the thickness of wall exceeds
200 mm, then r/f should be provided on both faces of wall.

3. Dia. of bar should not exceed 1/10th of thickness of wall.

4. The max. spacing should not exceeds L/5,3t or 450 mm, where L is length of
wall.
REINFORCEMENT FOR SHEAR
Nominal shear stress is calculated as,
V u
v 
td
Where, d = Effective width ( = 0.8L for rectangular section)
Vu = Factored shear Force
Nominal shear stress v > c max. [ IS : 456 (2000) Table 20]
or > c max = 0.63 fck
• Shear taken by concrete is same as beam shear. ( Table 9 of IS 456 assuming
0.25% steel ) & if necessary increase it’s value by following multiplying factor ‘’
3Pu (but not more than 1.5)
  1
Ac fck
Where Pu --- Total axial load
 --- Multiplying factor.
Shear capacity of concrete and steel is given by
Vc =  c t d
Vs = Vu – Vc
The steel necessary to resist the shear is determined from following formula -

0.87 fyAs.d Where, Vs = Vu - c x t x d = S.F. resisted by horiz. shear r/f

Vs 
Sv As = area of horiz. shear r/f
Sv = spacing of shear r/f

NOTE : Vertical steel provided in wall for shear should not be less than horiz. steel.

Adequacy of Boundary Element

The max. axial load on Boundary element due to vertical load and moment, is
Mu  Muv
P = Sum of factored Gravity Loads +
c
where, Mu = Factored moment on the whole wall

Muv = Moment of resistance provided by the rectangular wall

( i.e. excluding the boundary element ) [Ref. IS:13920-1993, Appendix A]

c = C / C distance between boundary element

 NOTE :

1. Load factor for gravity loads = 0.8 if gravity loads tend to add to strength of wall.

2. The boundary element is designed as column with vertical steel not less than
0.8% & not greater than 4%.

3.The Bar Bells of shear wall should be provided as shown in fig.

SHEAR WALL
Required Development Splice and Anchorage

The splicing of vertical flexure steel should be avoided as far as

possible in region of flexural-yielding.

Splicing can be extended to a distance of :

1. Length of wall “L” above the base of wall or

2. 1 / 6 height of wall

# If splicing is needed, not more than 1/3 of steel should be spliced at

such a section.
# Splicing of adjacent bars should be staggered a min. of 600 mm.