Chapters 18

Reinforced Concrete Design II

Shear Walls
Parts II - III

Dr. Anis Shatnawi

RC_II 1

Part II

Shear Walls

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3- Shear Walls
Shear walls is a structural element used to resist
lateral / horizontal / shear parallel to the plan of
the wall.

Usually, shear walls used in the

high rise building to resist lateral
loads ( Seismic loads
& Wind load ).

ACI called such walls as

STRUCTURAL WALLS

B
Cantilever Shear-Wall

A
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2
5

3
 7

E  Q E  0.2S ds D
E = the effect of horizontal and vertical
earthquake-induced forces,
SDS = the design spectral response
acceleration at short periods
D = the effect of dead load

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 If the there is a vertical discontinuities of the structure
system that resisting the seismic load the effect of
seismic load E is defined as follows:

E  oQ E  0.2S ds D

where Ωo is the system over strength factor. The value of Ωo

varies between 2 to 3 as given in tables depending on the
type of lateral force resisting system

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Special Provisions For Earthquake Resistance

According to Clause 1.1.9.1 of ACI 318, the seismic risk level of a
region is regulated by the legally adopted general building code
of which ACI 318 forms a part, or determined by local authority.

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ACI 318 Provisions for Shear Walls

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Shear Walls
What is a Shear Wall Building
• Reinforced concrete (RC) buildings often have
vertical plate‐like RC walls called Shear Walls
(Figure 1) in addition to slabs, beams and columns.

• These walls generally start at foundation level

and are continuous throughout the building height.

• Their thickness can be as low as 150mm (6”), or as

high as 400mm (16”) in high rise buildings.

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 What is a Shear Wall Building
• Shear walls are
usually provided along
both length and width
of buildings (Figure 1).

• Shear walls are like

vertically‐oriented wide
beams that carry
earthquake or any
lateral loads
downwards to the
foundation.

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Possible Arrangements for Shear Wall in a Building

Shear wall around elevators or stairwells

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 Advantages of Shear Walls in RC Buildings
• Properly designed and detailed buildings with shear
walls have shown very good performance in past
earthquakes.

• Shear walls in high seismic regions require special

detailing. However, in past earthquakes, even buildings
with sufficient amount of walls that were not specially
detailed for seismic performance (but had enough well‐
distributed reinforcement) were saved from collapse.

• Shear wall buildings are a popular choice in many

earthquake prone countries.

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Advantages of Shear Walls in RC Buildings

• Shear walls are easy to construct, because
reinforcement detailing of walls is relatively straight
forward and therefore easily implemented at site.

• Shear walls are efficient, both in terms of construction

cost and effectiveness in minimizing earthquake damage
in structural and nonstructural elements (like glass
windows and building contents).

• Shear walls provide large strength and stiffness to

buildings in the direction of their orientation, which
significantly reduces lateral sway of the building and
thereby reduces damage to structure and its contents.
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Disadvantages of Shear Walls in RC Buildings
• On the other hand, shear walls present barriers, which
may interfere with architectural and services requirement.

• Added to this, lateral load resistance in shear wall buildings

is usually concentrated on a few walls rather than on large
number of columns.

• Since shear walls carry large horizontal earthquake forces,

the overturning effects on them are large. Thus, design of
their foundations requires special attention.

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Architectural Aspects of Shear Walls

• Shear walls in buildings must be symmetrically located in
plan to reduce ill effects of twist in buildings.

• Shear walls are more effective when located along exterior

perimeter of the building – such a layout increases resistance
of the building to twisting.

• Shear walls should be provided along preferably both length

and width. However, if they are provided along only one
direction, a proper grid of beams and columns in the vertical
plane (called a moment‐resistant frame) must be provided along
the other direction to resist strong earthquake effects (Called
Dual or interactive systems)

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Architectural Aspects of Shear Walls
• Door or window openings can be provided in shear walls,
but their size must be small to ensure least interruption to
force flow through walls. Moreover, openings should be
symmetrically located.

Shear walls must be symmetric in plan layout

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Ductile Design of Shear Walls:

• Just like reinforced concrete beams and columns,
reinforced concrete shear walls also perform much
better if designed to be ductile (high deformation
capacity).

• Overall geometric proportions of the wall, types and

amount of reinforcement, and connection with
remaining elements in the building help in improving
the ductility of walls.

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Overall Geometry of Walls:
• Most Shear walls are rectangular in cross‐section, i.e., one
dimension of the cross‐section is much larger than the
other.

• While rectangular cross‐section is common, L‐ and

U‐shaped sections are also used.

• Thin‐walled hollow reinforced concrete shafts around the

elevator core of buildings also act as shear walls, and should
be taken advantage of to resist earthquake forces.

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Overall Geometry of Walls:

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 Part III
Shear Walls

Classifications, Layout, Size,

Drift Control, and Minimum
Reinforcement
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Classification of Structural Walls According To Seismic Risk

According to Chapters 2 and 21 of ACI 318, structural walls are
defined as being walls proportioned to resist combinations of
shears, moments and axial forces induced by earthquake motions.
A shear wall is a structural wall. Reinforced concrete structural walls
are categorized as follows:
1- Ordinary reinforced concrete structural walls, which are walls
complying with the requirements of Chapters 1 through 18.
2- Intermediate reinforced concrete structural walls, which are
walls complying with the requirements of Chapters 1 through 18
with some requirements from ACI Ch21

3- Special reinforced concrete structural walls, which are cast-in-

place walls complying with the requirements of 21.2 and 21.7 in
addition to the requirements for ordinary reinforced concrete
structural walls. 28

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 Classification of Shear Walls According To
Their Height-to-Length Ratios
Shear walls are classified as short or long according to their aspect
ratios (the ratio of its height hw to length in the plane of loading lw ),
as follows:
• For hw / lw ≤ 2, they are called
short or squat shear walls. Their
design is dominated by shear,
rather than flexure.

• For hw / lw > 2, they are called

long or slender shear walls. Their
design is dominated by flexure.

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Shear Walls Dimensions

Effective depth !

Tensile reinforcement needed on the left Tensile reinforcement needed on the right side
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Shear Wall Foundations:
Because tensile uplift stresses are difficult to resist, they
should be avoided. This is done by increasing the size of
the wall footing. If footing size becomes excessive,
possible solutions are:

(1)Replace the rectangular footing with

an H-shaped footing to increase the
radius of gyration of the footing.
(2) Use mat foundation.
(3) Use pile foundation.
(4) Use coupled shear walls.

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Minimum Concrete Cover

a - Concrete exposed to earth or weather

for Φ<16mm ------ 40 mm and
for Φ>16mm ----- 50 mm
Note: 16 mm = #5 in US units
b - Concrete not exposed to earth or weather

for Φ < 32mm ------ 20 mm,

Otherwise ------ 40 mm

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Layout of buildings with structural walls:
The major considerations in selecting a structural system for a
multistory building with structural walls are:
(1) The building must have enough rigidity to withstand the service loads without
excessive deflections or vibrations.
(2) It is desirable that the wall be loaded with enough vertical load to resist any
uplift of parts of the wall foundations due to lateral walls.

(3) The locations of frames and walls should minimize tensional deformations of
the building about the vertical axis of the building.

(4) The walls must have adequate strength in shear and in combined flexure and
axial loads.

(5) The wall must have enough cover on the reinforcement.

(6) Multiple walls should be used to minimize demands on footings.

(7) For Structures where substantial torsional moments may be generated, a wide
distribution of shear walls around the perimeter of the floor plan would be most
efficient for resisting torsion
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Required Size of Shear Wall

The major considerations in determining the size of shear wall
section are:
(1) The walls must have enough stiffness to limit the lateral
deflections.

(2) The walls must have adequate strength in shear and in

combined flexure and axial loads.

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Required Size of Shear Wall

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Required Size of Shear Wall

∅ . ′ (Ultimate Base Shear)

. ( f c ' in MPa and b , d in mm )

∅ . ′ . (Ultimate Base Shear)

∅ ′ (Ultimate Base Shear)

psi inches .

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Required Size of Shear Wall

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Story Drift Limits

important for:

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Story Drift Lomits

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Story Drift Lomits

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Story Drift Lomits

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Story Drift Lomits

Base Shear: V = Cs W

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 Design of Ordinary Shear Walls
The shear wall is designed as a cantilever beam fixed at the base,
to transfer load to the foundation. Shear force, bending moment,
and axial load are maximum at the base of the wall.

Types of Reinforcement:
To control cracking, reinforcement is required in the
horizontal and vertical directions, to resist in plane shear
forces and flexural stresses.
The vertical reinforcement in the wall serves as flexural
reinforcement.
If large moment capacity is required, additional
reinforcement can be placed at the ends of the wall within
the section itself, or within enlargements at the ends.
The heavily reinforced or enlarged sections are called
boundary elements.
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Types of Reinforcement:

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450 mm 45

(High walls)

450 mm 46

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(MPa): 0 .1 7 A c v f c '

(or 10’’)

(Psi):
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Transverse
reinforcement

Longitudinal
reinforcement

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 Transverse
reinforcement

Longitudinal
reinforcement

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Chapter 14 Provisions:

450 mm

420 MPa

420 MPa

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Chapter 14 Provisions:
250 mm

(450 mm) 51

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 (2 16 mm)

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Additional Reinforcement Around Openings:

In addition to the required horizontal and vertical reinforcement
explained earlier, ACI 14.3.7 states that not less than 2Φ16mm
bars are provided around all window and door openings. Such
bars are to be extended to develop fy in tension at the corners of
the openings.

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