Finite element analysis of pierced shear walls

Previous discrete analysis techniques applied to shear walls with openings have utilized finite elements with linear displacement fields. These elements require relatively fine meshes in order to correctly describe the reverse bending behavior of the connecting beams and to avoid an idealization for the shear wall which is too stiff. This study presents the use of finite elements which have additional degrees of freedom and allow curved deformation patterns to exist. These refined elements are also combined with plane frame beam elements which are used to idealize slender connecting beams in pierced shear walls. This combination of elements is also applied to analysis of the interaction of shear walls with their surrounding frames in plane frame shear wall combinations.

A computer program is developed and presented which is capable of handling a wide range of general shear wall configurations. Only the geometry, loading conditions, and elastic properties are used as input to the program. The output consists of the input data, as a check, then the displacements and stresses at each node as well as member and actions for the beam elements if they are used.

Several refined finite element solutions are compared with experimental results for pierced shear wall problems of varying story heights and beam to shear wall stiffness ratios as well as frame and shear wall configurations. These comparisons provide initial guidelines for the efficient use of this refined element in the analysis of general shear wall configurations.