Design Method of Reinforced Concrete Shear Wall Using EBCS

Concrete shear walls or structural walls are often used in multistory buildings to resist lateral loads such as wind, seismic and blast loads. Such walls are used when the frame system alone is insufficient or uneconomical to withstand all the lateral loads or when partition walls can be made load bearing, replacing columns and beams. The analysis and design of buildings with shear walls became simple using commercially available computer programs based on the finite element method (FEM) and subsequent implementation of stress integration techniques to arrive at generalized forces (axial, shear, and moments). On the other hand, design engineers without such facilities or those with computer facilities lacking such features use simple method of analysis and design by taking the entire dimensions of the walls. This is done by considering the shear walls as wide columns of high moment of inertia and following the same procedure as for columns. The primary purpose of this paper is believed that structural engineers working in the analysis and design of high- rise buildings will be benefited from the design shear wall by using EBCS: 2-1995 and EBCS:8-1995codes and its results. KEYWORDS-concrete shear wall, Ethiopian building code standard (EBCS), lateral loads, moment of inertia, stress integration techniques. I. INTRODUCTION Shear walls are deep relatively thin vertically reinforced concrete beams .They are commonly used in the structures to resist the effects of gravity loads and storey shears. Shear walls are vertical elements in the lateral force resisting system that transmit lateral forces from the diaphragm above to the diaphragm below or to the foundation . Shear walls may also bearing walls in the gravity load system or they may be components in dual system framed so as to resist only lateral loads. Walls may be subjected to both vertical (gravity) and horizontal (Wind or Earthquake) forces. The horizontal forces are both in plane and out of plane. When considered under their in plane loads walls are called shear walls. When considered under their out of plane loads they are called normal walls. Walls will be designed to withstand all vertical loads and horizontal forces both parallel to and normal to the flat surface with due allowance for the effect of any eccentric loading or overturning forces generated. Any wall whether or not intended as part of the lateral force resisting system is subjected to lateral forces unless it is isolated on three sides(both ends and top) in which case it is classified as non structural. Any wall that is not isolated will participate in shear resistance to horizontal forces parallel to the wall. Since it tends to deform under stress when the surrounding framework deforms. The distribution of lateral loads on shear walls varies with their height. For example under lateral wind loading this distribution may vary from nearly uniform on a wall in a tall building to a single concreted force on a wall in a low building.