Comparative Study of Behavior of Shear Wall with Different Percentage of Opening

Shear walls are provided in high rise structures and structures located in higher seismic areas. The primary purpose of shear wall is to resist lateral forces arising due to earthquake or wind. Usually, architectural design leads to the existence of doors and windows within shear walls. This project is to study the effect of openings in shear wall on behavior of structural frames. A RCC medium rise building of 12 stories with floor height 3m subjected to earthquake loading in V Zone has been considered. Such building modeled with different type of lateral resisting system: complete shear wall, shear wall with opening. Results of the analyses showed a substantial decrease in terms of strength of the wall for shear walls with openings. Also to study the displacement at various levels with the different percentage or size of opening provide in shear wall. This study verified large lateral displacements and ductility for shear walls with openings in comparison with complete shear wall. The displacement increases gradually from ground floor to top floor with increase in percentage of openings. If openings are required in shear wall detailed analysis of structure is essential as it may lead to erratic increase in forces on columns.