The Static and Dynamic Analysis of Coupled Shear Walls by a Discrete Force Method

An analysis of coupled shear walls is developed which models planar coupled shear walls as a system of interconnected discrete structural elements. The analysis is based on the force approach, using as redundants the shear forces at the contraflexural points of the connecting beams. The redundant shears are determined by enforcement of compatibility of deformation on pairs of adjacent connecting beams. The
resulting formulation is shown to be computationally advantageous for linear elastic static and dynamic analysis of coupled walls. The use of beam shears is shown to be particularly convenient for elasto-plastic analysis, with a perfectly elastic/perfectly plastic yield criterion, since the number of redundants progressively decreases as the analysis proceeds. The effectiveness and efficiency of the approach are demonstrated by application to an example for which solutions are available from a number of established alternative methods.

D. Johnson and B.S. Choo