Effect of Opening in Shear Wall

Shear wall, a continuous vertical member, is an important element in high-rise buildings, which provides the lateral stability and resists the lateral forces from earthquake and wind forces. Finite Element Method is widely used for analysing complicated structural systems. The selected structural model must be simple, produce accurate result and be economical. Important factors affecting the analysis of shear wall structure are the type and number of elements, the distribution of the forces, geometry and section properties. The aim of this study is to investigate the suitability, simplicity,accuracy; effectiveness of different structural models used in the analysis of shear wall and coupled shear wall structures.The study concentrates on the behaviour of the wall with the introduction of opening in it. Different elements used in modelling the shear walls are 6-noded triangular element, 4-noded quadrilateral element & 8-noded quadrilateral element with three refinement of mesh.The structural behaviour interms of deflections, stresses distribution and dynamic characteristics are presented and discussed.