Interaction of Shear Walls and Frames

The distribution of lateral forces and their effects on the resisting elements of buildings braced with shear walls are obtained by an iterative method directly applicable to design. The method is suitable both for manual computations as well as for relatively small computers with memory capacity less than 20,000 digits. The method can also be applied to secondary conditions, such as frame torsion resulting from eccentric loads or dissymmetry, foundation rotation, axial deformations of the columns, formation of plastic hinges at any point of the shear wall, and to shear walls terminated at intermediate levels. The distribution of lateral loads to the frame and the shear wall depends not only on their relative stiffness, but also on the total number of stories in a building. Tentative recommendations are proposed on the effective width of slab that can be used as the beam element in a slab-column frame subjected to lateral loads. A number of influence curves are included to assist designers in the analysis.