CV4120 Advanced Reinforced

Concrete Design
Lecture 4 – Walls

Assistant Professor Zhao Ou

Email: ou.zhao@ntu.edu.sg
Office: N1-01b-49
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Nanyang Technological University

1
Outline
• General
• Types of walls
• Reinforcement requirements in walls
• Reinforcement distribution and wall shapes
• Design of load-bearing walls
• Design of shear walls
• Worked example

2
 General
• All buildings contain walls, with functions including:

 Carrying vertical and horizontal loads and bending moment

 Enclosing and dividing spaces

 Offering protections from wind and rain

 Retaining heat or cold air

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 General
• EC2 – Clause 5.3.1(7) specifies wall as a structural member that
satisfies h/b>4. This definition distinguishes a wall from a column.
• In RC buildings, walls and columns could also coexsit.
• Walls are widely used in the construction of RC modules in
Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction (PPVC).

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 Types of walls
• Walls may be classified into the following types:
1) Non-load-bearing walls for partition

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 Types of walls
• Walls may be classified into the following types:
2) Load-bearing walls carrying vertical load and out-of-plane bending moment

Note that out-of-plane bending moment means bending moment about the
longer axis (length direction) of the wall.

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 Types of walls
• Walls may be classified into the following types:
3) Shear walls mainly carrying horizontal load from winds and a small amount
of vertical load

Note that the horizontal load induces in-plane bending moment about the
shorter axis (width direction) of the wall.

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 Reinforcement requirements in walls
• Vertical reinforcement:
 The minimum area is defined as 0.002Ac.
 The maximum area should be less than 0.04Ac.
 If the minimum reinforcement controls the design, half of the reinforcement
(i.e. 0.001Ac) should be placed at each face of the wall.
 The distance between two adjacent vertical reinforcement bars should not
exceed three times the wall thickness and 400 mm.

Vertical
reinforcement

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 Reinforcement requirements in walls
• Horizontal reinforcement:
 Horizontal reinforcement should be provided at both faces of the wall.
 The area of horizontal reinforcement should be at least 25% of that of
vertical reinforcement or 0.001Ac, whichever is greater.
 The spacing between two adjacent horizontal reinforcement bars should
not exceed 400 mm.

Horizontal
reinforcement

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 Reinforcement requirements in walls
• Transverse reinforcement (link):
 Links must be provided if the area of vertical reinforcement exceeds 0.02Ac.
 The diameter of the link should not be less than 6 mm or 1/4 of the
diameter of the largest longitudinal bar, whichever is greater.
 The maximum spacing between two links is equal to the minimum of 20
times the diameter of the smallest longitudinal bar, the thickness of the wall
and 400 mm.

Plan view of wall

Horizontal Transverse Vertical
reinforcement reinforcement reinforcement

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 Reinforcement distribution and wall
shapes
• Vertical reinforcement can be either distributed uniformly along the
length of the wall or concentrated at the ends of the wall.

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 Reinforcement distribution and wall
shapes
• Column-wall-column system

• Channel-shaped wall

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 Design of load-bearing walls

• Load-bearing walls carry vertical load and out-of-plane bending

moment about the longer axis (length direction) of the wall.
• Load-bearing wall can be treated as a series of ‘columns’.
• M-N interaction diagrams, as used in the design of columns, are then
used to design load-bearing walls.

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 Design of shear walls

• Three steps towards the design of shear walls:

1) Calculation of horizontal load at each floor level
2) Distribution of horizontal load between shear walls
3) Design shear wall as a cantilever under in-plane bending moment and
vertical compression load

Elevation view of building Plan view of floor Shear wall

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 Design of shear walls

Calculation of horizontal load at each floor level:

• The horizontal load consists of two parts:
1) Horizontal load from wind
2) Notional horizontal load due to geometric imperfection
 Design of RC structures should consider geometric imperfection,
represented by a notional inclination of the structure.
 The notional inclination depends on the overall building height and number
of columns in the building.
NEd

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 Design of shear walls

Calculation of horizontal load at each floor level:

• The horizontal load consists of two parts:
1) Horizontal load from wind
2) Notional horizontal load due to geometric imperfection
 The notional horizontal load at each floor level is thus calculated as the
design vertical load multiplied by the notional inclination.
Hi  N Ed ,ii
NEd H
Where:
Hi is the notional horizontal load at the ith level.
NEd,i is the design vertical load at the ith level.
θi is the notional inclination.

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 Design of shear walls

Calculation of horizontal load at each floor level:

• Two loading cases should be considered.
 Case I: 1.5Wk+1.35Gk,h+1.5×0.7Qk,h
Leading to the maximum compressive stress in shear wall

 Case II: 1.5Wk+1.0Gk,h

Leading to the maximum tensile stress in shear wall

Where:
Wk is the characteristic wind load.
Gk,h is the notional horizontal load due to the characteristic dead load.
Qk,h is the notional horizontal load due to the characteristic imposed load.

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 Example 1: Calculation of horizontal load at
each floor level
Consider a 4-storey building with the overall height of 15 m and the wind load
is in the south-north direction. The floor plan is shown below. Take the
characteristic dead load as gk=8.5 kN/m2, the characteristic imposed load
qk=2.95 kN/m2 and the characteristic wind load wk=1.0 kN/m2. Assume 25
columns at each floor level.

Wind

Calculate the horizontal load at each floor level.

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 Example 1: Calculation of horizontal load at
each floor level
• The characteristic wind load along the building height is equal to:
Wk  40.21  40.2 kN / m

• The (characteristic) notional horizontal load due to dead load at each

floor level is equal to:
Gk ,h  (40.2 208.5)1/ 410 16.7 kN

• The (characteristic) notional horizontal load due to imposed load at

each floor level is equal to:
Qk ,h  (40.2 20 2.95)1/ 410  5.79 kN

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 Example 1: Calculation of horizontal load at
each floor level
• Loading case I: 1.5Wk+1.35Gk+1.5×0.7Qk
1.5Wk 1.5 40.2  60.3 kN / m
1.35Gk ,h 1.5 0.7Qk ,h 1.3516.7 1.5 0.7 5.79  28.6 kN

28.6 kN

28.6 kN

60.3 kN/m 28.6 kN

28.6 kN

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 Example 1: Calculation of horizontal load at
each floor level
• Loading case II: 1.5Wk+1.0Gk
1.5Wk 1.5 40.2  60.3 kN / m
1.0Gk ,h 1.016.7 16.7 kN

16.7 kN

16.7 kN

60.3 kN/m 16.7 kN

16.7 kN

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 Design of shear walls

Distribution of horizontal load between shear walls:

• EC2 permits the use of a simplified approach for the distribution of
horizontal load between shear walls for buildings up to 25 storeys.
• The simplified approach assumes that:
1) Floors are rigid in their planes, i.e. rigid body motion of each floor with
shear walls.
2) The wall stiffness is represented by a single parameter (i.e. shear walls can
be treated as springs), and thus the horizontal force resisted by the jth shear
wall is calculated as Fj=kjδj.
Where:
kj is the stiffness of the jth shear wall.
δj is the deformation of jth shear wall.

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 Design of shear walls

Distribution of horizontal load between shear walls:

• Centre of rotation is a defined as a point, through which the application
of horizontal load would not lead to any rotation of the floor plane (and
thus the shear wall system), i.e. no twisting deformation and twisting
moment would be induced.
• Location of centre of rotation in x*–y* coordinate for a typical floor with
shear walls in one direction:
n
Shear Wall 3  (k j x*j )
j 1
x
k3, (x3*, y3*)
Shear Wall 1 n
Centre of
k1, (x1*, y1*)
rotation (𝑥,ҧ 𝑦)
ത  kj
j 1
Where:

Shear Wall 2 xj* is distance from the centroid of the jth

y* k2, (x2*, y2*) shear wall to the origin in the x* direction.
yj* is distance from the centroid of the jth
x* shear wall to the origin in the y* direction.

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 Design of shear walls

Distribution of horizontal load between shear walls:

• Case I: The overall horizontal load H is acted at the centre of rotation.

Shear Wall 3
k3, (x3*, y3*)
Shear Wall 1
Centre of
k1, (x1*, y1*)
rotation (𝑥,ҧ 𝑦)
ത

Shear Wall 2
y* k2, (x2*, y2*)

x*
H

kj
The horizontal load on each shear wall is equal to: F j  n
H
 kj
j 1

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 Design of shear walls

Distribution of horizontal load between shear walls:

• Case II: The overall horizontal load H is not acted at the centre of
rotation, and thus leads to a combination of horizontal load H and
twisting moment M=He to the shear wall system, in which e is the
distance from the location of horizontal load to the centre of rotation.

Shear Wall 3
k3, (x3*, y3*)
Shear Wall 1
Centre of
k1, (x1*, y1*)
rotation (𝑥,ҧ 𝑦)
ത

Shear Wall 2
y* k2, (x2*, y2*)
e
x*
H
k j ( x*j  x)
The horizontal load induced by twisting moment on each F j ''  n He
shear wall is equal to:  k j ( x*j  x) 2
kj
The horizontal load on each shear wall is equal to: F j '  n H j 1
25  kj
j 1
 Design of shear walls

Distribution of horizontal load between shear walls:

• Case II: The overall horizontal load H is not acted at the centre of
rotation, and thus leads to a combination of horizontal load H and
twisting moment M=He to the shear wall system, in which e is the
distance from the location of horizontal load to the centre of rotation.

Shear Wall 3
k3, (x3*, y3*)
Shear Wall 1
Centre of
k1, (x1*, y1*)
rotation (𝑥,ҧ 𝑦)
ത

Shear Wall 2
y* k2, (x2*, y2*)
e
x*
H

The total horizontal load on each shear wall is equal to: F j  F j ' F j ''

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 Example 2: Distribution of horizontal load
between shear walls
Floor plan is shown below:
40.2 m

Shear Wall 3
5k, (40, 15)
Shear Wall 1
Centre of
20k, (0, 10)
rotation (𝑥,ҧ 𝑦)
ത
20.0 m

Shear Wall 2
y* 4k, (30, 9)

x*
H, (20, 0)

Distribute the horizontal load at each shear wall.

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 Example 2: Distribution of horizontal load
between shear walls
• Total stiffness of shear walls:
n
 k j  20k  4k  5k  29k
j 1

• Location of centre of rotation of the shear wall system:

n
 (k j x*j )
x j 1

(20k  0  4k  30  5k  40)  11 m
n 29k
 kj
j 1

• Distribution of horizontal force between shear walls:

k k
F1 '  n j H  20k H  0.69H F2 '  n j H  4k H  0.14H
29k 29k
 kj  kj
j 1 j 1

kj
F3 '  H  5k H  0.17 H
n 29k
 kj
j 1
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 Example 2: Distribution of horizontal load
between shear walls
• The twisting moment is equal to:
M  H (20 11)  9H

• Distribution of horizontal force induced by twisting moment between

shear walls:
k j ( x*j  x) 20k (0 11)
F1 ''  M 9H  0.245H
n 20k (0 11)2  4k (30 11)2  5k (40 11)2
 k j ( x j  x)
* 2

j 1

k j ( x*j  x) 4k (30 11)

F2 ''  M 9H  0.084H
n 20k (0 11)2  4k (30 11)2  5k (40 11)2
 k j ( x j  x)
* 2

j 1

k j ( x*j  x) 5k (40 11)

F3 ''  M 9H  0.161H
n 20k (0 11)2  4k (30 11)2  5k (40 11)2
 k j ( x j  x)
* 2

j 1

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 Example 2: Distribution of horizontal load
between shear walls
• The total horizontal load on each shear wall is equal to:
F1  F1 ' F1 ''  0.69H  0.245H  0.445H
F2  F2 ' F2 ''  0.14H  0.084H  0.224H
F3  F3 ' F3 ''  0.17 H  0.161H  0.331H

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 Example 3: Distribution of horizontal load
between shear walls
The 4-storey building in Example 1 has the below floor plan. Shear Wall 3 is 4
m long and 200 mm thick. The characteristic cladding load on Shear Wall 3 is
1 kN/m2. Shear Wall 3 supports 20 m2 floor slab. The density of concrete is 25
kN/m3.

40.2 m

Shear Wall 3
5k, (40, 15)
Shear Wall 1
Centre of
20k, (0, 10)
rotation (𝑥,ҧ 𝑦)
ത
20.0 m

Shear Wall 2
y* 4k, (30, 9)

x*
H, (20, 0)

Determine the vertical loading and in-plane bending moment on Shear Wall
3 at the ground floor level.

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 Example 3: Distribution of horizontal load
between shear walls
• The (characteristic) vertical load due to dead load on Shear Wall 3 at
the ground floor level is equal to:
Gk ,v  48.5 20  415 0.2 25  4151 1040 kN

• The (characteristic) vertical load due to imposed load on Shear Wall 3

at the ground floor level is equal to:
Qk ,v  4 2.95 20  236 kN

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 Example 3: Distribution of horizontal load
between shear walls
• Case 1: 1.5Wk+1.35Gk+1.5×0.7Qk
N Ed 1.351040 1.5 0.7  236 1652 kN
Note that the same two loading cases are considered for the calculation
of design vertical loads

M Ed  [28.6 (3.75  7.5 11.25 15)  60.31515/ 2] 0.331  2600 kNm
28.6 kN

28.6 kN

60.3 kN/m 28.6 kN

28.6 kN

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 Example 3: Distribution of horizontal load
between shear walls
• Case 2: 1.5Wk+1.0Gk
N Ed 1.01040 1040 kN

M Ed  [16.7  (3.75  7.5 11.25 15)  60.31515/ 2] 0.331  2453 kNm
16.7 kN

16.7 kN

60.3 kN/m 16.7 kN

16.7 kN

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 Design of shear walls

Design shear wall under vertical compression load and in-plane bending
moment
• Design of shear walls can be carried out by two approaches
1) Using M-N interaction diagram approach, which is similar to that adopted in
the design of column.

Note that M-N interaction diagram for walls with very small d1/h
ratio may need to be built firstly.
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 Design of shear walls

Design shear wall under vertical compression load and in-plane bending
moment
• Design of shear walls can be carried out by two approaches
2) Assuming elastic stress distribution throughout the cross-section, the
design procedures are as follows:
 Calculate cross-section geometric properties
 Determine the maximum tensile stress of the shear wall (more critical than
the maximum compressive stress)
 Derive the tension length of the shear wall
 Calculate the required vertical reinforcement
 Approximate the required horizontal reinforcement
 Check whether transverse reinforcement is required

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 Example 4: Design of shear walls under
vertical load and in-plane bending
Design the vertical, horizontal and transverse reinforcements for Shear Wall 3
at the ground floor level in Example 3.
40.2 m

Shear Wall 3
5k, (40, 15)
Shear Wall 1
Centre of
20k, (0, 10)
rotation (𝑥,ҧ 𝑦)
ത
20.0 m

Shear Wall 2
y* 4k, (30, 9)

x*
H, (20, 0)

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 Example 4: Design of shear walls under
compression load and in-plane bending
• Cross-section properties:
Ac  4000 200  8105 mm2
1
Ic   200 40003 1.07 1012 mm4
12
Wc 1.07 1012 /(0.5 4000)  5.33108 mm3

• The maximum compressive stress from Loading Case 1 is equal to:

N Ed M Ed 1652103 2600106
f max,c      6.94 N / mm2
Ac Wc 8105
5.33108
M Ed N Ed

Wc Ac

Lt
N Ed M Ed

Ac Wc
Shear Wall 3

38 Compressive stress in RC shear shear wall is generally not critical.

 Example 4: Design of shear walls under
compression load and in-plane bending
• The maximum tensile stress from Loading Case 2 is equal to:
N Ed M Ed 1040103 2453106
f max,t      3.30 N / mm2
Ac Wc 8105
5.33108

The tensile stress in RC shear wall is more critical, and thus

design of RC shear walls should be based on the tensile stress.

• The compressive stress from Loading Case 2 is equal to

N Ed M Ed 1040103 2453106
f max,c      5.90 N / mm2
Ac Wc 8105
5.33108

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 Example 4: Design of shear walls under
compression load and in-plane bending
• The length of wall in tension:
Lt  4000 3.30/(3.30  5.90) 1435 mm

• The total tensile force:

T  3.301435 200/ 2/1000  474 kN

• The required area of vertical tensile reinforcement:

T 474103
Av   1089 mm2
f yd 500 /1.15

• The required area of vertical tensile reinforcement per length:

A 1089
Av / m  v   1518 mm2 / m
0.5Lt 0.51.435

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 Example 4: Design of shear walls under
compression load and in-plane bending
• Provide 2H16@250 leading to 1608 mm2/m.
Av, provide / m  88 3.14/0.25 2 1608 mm2 / m

• EC2 minimum vertical reinforcement area:

Amin / m  0.002 Ac / 4  0.002 4000 200/ 4  400 mm2 / m 1608 mm2 / m Ok!

• EC2 maximum spacing of vertical reinforcements

Smax  min(3t; 400)  400 mm  250 mm Ok!

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 Example 4: Design of shear walls under
compression load and in-plane bending
• Minimum required area of horizontal reinforcement at each face:
Amin / m  max(0.001Ac / 4; 25% Av )/ 2  (0.001 4000 200/ 4; 25% 1608)/ 2  201 mm2 / m

• Provide H10@300 at each face, leading to 262 mm2/m.

Ah, provide / m  5 5 3.14/0.3  262 mm2 / m Ok!

• EC2 maximum spacing of horizontal reinforcements

Smax  400 mm  300 mm Ok!

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 Example 4: Design of shear walls under
compression load and in-plane bending
• Transverse reinforcement is not required
Av, provide / m 1608 mm2 / m  0.02 Ac / m  0.02 4000 200/ 4  4000 mm2 / m

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CV4120 Advanced Reinforced
Concrete Design
Lecture 4 – Walls

Assistant Professor Zhao Ou

Email: ou.zhao@ntu.edu.sg
Office: N1-01b-49
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Nanyang Technological University

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