©COMPUTERS AND STRUCTURES, INC.

, BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA JUNE 2010

SHEAR WALL DESIGN ACI 318-05
Technical Note
Spandrel Shear Design

This Technical Note describes how the program designs concrete wall span-
drels for shear using ACI 318-05. Note that in this program you cannot spec-
ify shear reinforcing and then have the program check it. The program only
designs the spandrel for shear and reports how much shear reinforcing is re-
quired.

The program allows consideration of rectangular sections and T-beam sec-

tions for wall spandrels. The shear design for both of these types of spandrel
sections is identical.

General
The wall spandrel shear reinforcing is designed for each of the design load
combinations. The required area of reinforcing for vertical shear is calculated
at the ends of the spandrel beam only.

In this program, wall spandrels are designed for major direction flexure and
shear forces only. Effects caused by minor direction bending, torsion, or mi-
nor direction shear that may exist in the spandrels must be investigated by
the user independent of the program.

The following steps are involved in designing the shear reinforcing for a par-
ticular wall spandrel section for a particular design loading combination at a
particular station.

1. Determine the factored shear force V u .

2. Determine the shear force, V c , that can be carried by the concrete.

3. Determine the required shear reinforcing to carry the balance of the shear
force.

General Page 1 of 7
Shear Wall Design ACI 318-05 Spandrel Shear Design

Note:
You can specify in the overwrites that V c is to be ignored (set to zero) for spandrel shear
calculations.

Step 1 needs no further explanation. The following two sections describe in

detail the algorithms associated with Steps 2 and 3.

Determine the Concrete Shear Capacity

If no axial force is present, the shear force carried by the concrete, V c , is cal-
culated using Equation 1.

Vc  2 RLW fc t s dspandrel Eqn. 1

Equation 1 is based on Equation 11-3 in Chapter 11, Section 11.3.1.1 of ACI

318-05.

The shear force carried by the concrete, V c , is calculated using Equation 2

when a spandrel is subjected to axial compression.

 Pu 
Vc  2 RLW  1   fc t s dspandrel Eqn. 2a
 2000 Ag 
 

Pu
Vc  3.5 RLW 1  fc t s dspandrel Eqn. 2b
500 Ag

Equation 2 is based on Equations 11-4, 11-7 in Chapter 11, Section 11.3.1.2,

11.3.2.2 of ACI 318-05.

The shear force carried by the concrete, V c , is calculated using Equation 3

when a spandrel is subjected to axial tension. P u is negative for tension.

 Pu 
Vc  2 RLW  1   fc t s dspandrel  0 Eqn. 3
 500 Ag 
 

Equation 3 is based on Equation 11-8 in Chapter 11, Section 11.3.2.3 of ACI

318-05.

Determine the Concrete Shear Capacity Page 2 of 7

Shear Wall Design ACI 318-05 Spandrel Shear Design

It should be noted that an overwrite is available that allows you to ignore the
concrete contribution to the shear strength of the spandrel. If this overwrite is
activated, the program sets V c to zero for the spandrel.

Note:

The term R LW that is used as a multiplier on all fc terms in this Technical Note is a
shear strength reduction factor that applies to light-weight concrete. It is equal to 1 for
normal weight concrete. This factor is specified in the concrete material properties.

Determine the Required Shear Reinforcing

One of the terms used in calculating the spandrel shear reinforcing is d spandrel ,
which is the distance from the extreme compression fiber to the centroid of
the tension steel. For shear design, the program takes d spandrel to be equal to
the smaller of h s  d r-top and h s  d r-bot .

Seismic and Nonseismic Spandrels

In this entire subsection the term  is equal to  vns for nonseismic spandrels
and to  vs for seismic spandrels.

Given V u and V c , the required force to be carried by the shear reinforcing, V s ,

is calculated using Equation 4 (ACI 11.1.1).

Vu
Vs = Vn  Vc =  Vc Eqn. 4a

Vu
Vn = Eqn. 4b


If V n as calculated in Equation 4 exceeds 10 RLW fct s dspandrel , a failure condition

is reported in accordance with ACI 318-05 Section 11.5.7.9, 11.8.3, and
11.10.3.

Given V s , Equation 5 initially calculates the required vertical shear reinforcing

in area per unit length (e.g., square inches per foot) for both seismic and
nonseismic wall spandrels (as indicated in the preferences). Note that addi-
tional requirements that are checked for both seismic and nonseismic wall
spandrels are given in Equation 5 (ACI 11.5.7.2).

Determine the Required Shear Reinforcing Page 3 of 7

Shear Wall Design ACI 318-05 Spandrel Shear Design

Av V  Vc Vs
 n  Eqn. 5
s f ys dspandrel f ys dspandrel

Note:
The output units for the distributed shear reinforcing can be set in the shear wall design
preferences.

The following additional checks also are performed for both seismic and non-
seismic spandrels.

Ls
 When  4, the program verifies:
dspandrel

Vs  8 RLW fct s dspandrel , Eqn. 6a

otherwise a failure condition is declared in accordance with Section

11.5.7.9 of ACI 318-05.

Ls Vu
 When  4 and  0.5Vc , the minimum areas of vertical and
dspandrel 
horizontal shear reinforcing in the spandrel are (ACI 11.5.6.3):

t s 50t s
Av -min  0.75 fc  Eqn. 6b
f ys f ys

Ah-min  0 Eqn. 6c

Equation 6b is based on Equation 11-13 in Section 11.5.6.3 of ACI

318-05.

Ls Vu
 When  4 and  0.5Vc , the minimum areas of vertical and
dspandrel 
horizontal shear reinforcing in the spandrel are (ACI 11.5.6.1):

Av -min  Ah-min  0 Eqn. 6d

Note:
When calculating the L s /d spandrel term, the program always uses the smallest value of
d spandrel that is applicable to the spandrel.

Determine the Required Shear Reinforcing Page 4 of 7

Shear Wall Design ACI 318-05 Spandrel Shear Design

Ls
 When  4, the program verifies:
dspandrel

Vu
Vn   10 RLW fct s dspandrel Eqn. 6e


otherwise a failure condition is declared in accordance with Section 11.8.3

of ACI 318-05. For this condition, the minimum areas of horizontal and
vertical shear reinforcing in the spandrel are:

Av -min / s  0.0025ts Eqn. 6f

Ah-min / s  0.0015ts Eqn. 6g

Note that the check in Equation 6a is based on V s , whereas the checks in

Equations 6e and 6h are based on V n .

Note:
For nonseismic spandrels, A vd is reported as zero.

Seismic Spandrels Only

For seismic spandrels only, in addition to the requirements of the previous
subsection, an area of diagonal shear reinforcement in coupling beams also is
Ls
calculated when  4 using Equation 7.
dspandrel

Vu
Avd  , Eqn. 7
2 (s ) f ys sin 

where,
0.8hs
sin   ,
L2s  (0.8hs )2

where h s is the height of the spandrel and L s is the length of the spandrel.

Determine the Required Shear Reinforcing Page 5 of 7

Shear Wall Design ACI 318-05 Spandrel Shear Design

In the output, the program reports the diagonal shear reinforcing as either
required or not required (i.e., optional). The diagonal shear reinforcing is re-
Ls
ported as required when Vu  4 fcdbspandrel and  2.
dspandrel

Determine the Required Shear Reinforcing Page 6 of 7