Shear walls

General
Shear walls are vertically oriented
elements that apart from their ability to
bear vertical loads, they also limit the
horizontal deformations of the structural
frame. Since as a rule, they carry gravity
loads, their large size is not entirely
required. On the other hand, that large size
is abso-lutely necessary in order for them
to resist the horizontal seismic forces.
Ground earthquake motions cause severe
flexural and shear stresses to the shear
walls. These stresses can only be carried
by strong reinforcement, properly placed
inside their entire mass.
Shear wall refers to any vertical element
with a length to thickness ratio of 4 or
more. The clas-sification of an element as
shear wall determines the way that the

reinforcement will be placed inside its

concrete mass. In order for a shear wall to
behave in the required way, it must have
two columns embedded inside its ends or
otherwise called two boundary elements.

In case the shear wall does not have

clearly defined boundary elements, two
hidden columns are formed at the edges of
the walls mass. Their width is equal to the
shear walls thickness and their length
must be at least equal to one and a half
times the walls thickness ( 1.5b).

The boundary columns apart from

assisting in the assembling of the shear
wall also ensure a minimum strength

capacity. During a severe seismic event, it

is possible for wall consistency
degradation to happen. In such a case, at
the lower critical level of the building, the
two embed-ded columns, with the high
ductility that they have, will continue to
bear the largest amount of the applied
vertical gravity loads and seismic forces.
Notes:
a) Forming a 450 mm column (regular or
hidden), has the advantage that it is the
maximum length to place a three-legged
stirrup and the distance between the
stirrup legs to be around 200 mm as
required by the regulation.
b) Forming a 400 mm column usually does
not provide adequate anchorage length.
On the other hand, the use of a 500 mm
column requires a four-legged stirrup.

Shear wall behavior

In the duration of a seismic event, flexural
and mainly shear loads are applied to the
wall. As a result, in the entire elements
surface, stresses appear along the
diagonal axis. The diagonal shear stresses
shift direction with the change in the
earthquake shaking. These stresses are
efficiently carried by the well-confined
boundary columns, while in the main body
of the shear wall they are carried by the
double reinforcement mesh (horizontal and
vertical rebars).

The cracks that open due to the applied seismic

forces in one direction, will close when the
direction changes. This will continue to happen in
the entire duration of the earthquake.

Shear walls reinforcement

The boundary elements, either regular or
hidden, are reinforced according to the
rules that ap-ply to columns.
The wall body is reinforced by two parallel
grates one at each face. These are called
curtains and they are held together with
the use of an S-shaped vertical bar. The
vertical and horizontal grate rebars must
have a diameter at least equal to 8 .The
S shaped reinforcement must be greater
or equal to 48/m2

When we do not want cracked surfaces

e.g. in pool sides, we use narrow spaced

grates with the lower possible rebar

diameter.
The S- shaped reinforcement
The S-shaped bar provides anti-buckling
restraint to the longitudinal reinforcement.
Moreover, it ensures the vertical and the
horizontal rebars will continue to work
together even after a pos-sible concrete
spalling, in case of an intense earthquake
event.

The S-shaped link is formed with one

closed corner at an angle equal to 180, or
135 and the other corner bent at an angle
equal to 90. This is necessary for its
trouble-free placement. However, after its
implementation the second corner must be

also bent at an angle at least equal to

135.
It is allowed to use soft steel in order to be
able to bent the S-shaped reinforcement
by hand.
When the vertical rebars are placed in an
interior layer, then the S-shaped link must
restrain the horizontal rebars to the area
that they intersect with the vertical ones or
even better to go around both horizontal
and vertical rebars at the same time.
Alternatively, in an orthogonal shear wall,
the reinforcement of the boundary column
and the distribution rebars of the walls
body can be implemented as two
shaped parts, as shown at the following
figure. The shaped parts may be formed
with the use of folded mesh.

Anchoring the horizontal rebars of the

shear walls body
(a) Anchorage inside a strong boundary
column
When the boundary column is strong
enough and the horizontal rebars
(distribution bars) get anchored inside the
columns core, a straight anchorage length
can be used.

(b) Anchorage inside a weak boundary

column
When the boundary column is weak and its
width is not long enough to allow for a
straight an-chorage, it is mandatory to
anchor the horizontal rebars by forming a
hook at their ends.

(c) Straight anchorage inside the core,

when the boundary column is strong
enough and its one face colinear with
one side of the shear wall:
(i) case:

In this case, the disadvantage lays in the

need for bending up the horizontal rebars
in certain areas. For 8 and 10 bars, this
can be easily done during the
implementation, with the use of a bending
tool; however, for larger diameters it has to
be done with a bending machine.
In this case, the S-shaped reinforcement
must restraint the horizontal rebars to the
point where they intersect with the vertical
ones.
(ii) case:

In this case, a straight anchorage is used

and the horizontal rebars do not have to be
bent. This increases their cover depth but
since they mainly carry shear forces no
serious problem arises. Moreover, the
internal lever arm of the vertical rebars is
diminished but only around 1cm so
practically again, no problem appears.
As a conclusion, it is recommended to
use a straight bar anchored inside the
boundary column because apart from
the other advantages, it provides the
required cover depth for the S shaped
bars when they go around both the

horizontal and the vertical distribu-tion

rebars at the same time.
(d) Anchorage by encircling the
boundary column and ending in a hook.
No matter if the column is strong or weak,
the horizontal rebars must end in a hook
which will be placed on the inside of the
confined column.
1st case: adequate straight anchorage
length:

The anchorage might be achieved with a

90 hook placed inside the body of the
boundary col-umn
2nd case: inadequate straight anchorage
length:

When the columns width is not large

enough to provide an adequate straight
length of anchor-age, hooks bent at 45
(135) are being used. These are either
completely prefabricated so as to be 45
bent in both edges, or they are assembled
on the site with horizontal rebars with ends
bent at 45 and 90. These will be
alternately placed along the height.
(e) Anchorage of continuous peripheral
basement shear walls
In continuous basement shear walls the
difficulty in the reinforcement
implementation lays in the column area. In
order to overcome this difficulty straight
distribution rebars may be placed there.
These bars have a relatively small length.

They will be lapped with the larger

intermediate dis-tribution rebars and they
will be wired together with the vertical
ones.
It is very practical to use horizontal and
vertical distribution bars in the form of a
ready-to-use wire mesh. In such a case,
the practices described below are being
followed:
Firstly, the short horizontal rebars (starter
bars) are placed on either side of the
column, fol-lowed by the implementation of
the wire meshes as shown on the next
page.
Notes:
If the industrial wire mesh does not fit to
the shear walls span length then the short
starter bars placed in the columns area
might have a larger length. In such a case,
the vertical distribution rebars between the

end of the wire mesh and the column, are

placed by hand after the imple-mentation
of the mesh.
Short distribution column bars
Industrial mesh
Additional vertical distribution bars" />

Short distribution column bars

Industrial mesh
Additional vertical distribution bars

In case the column longitudinal rebar

layout creates a difficulty in the
implementation of the short distribution
rebars, the latter can be bent at their end.
Short distribution column bars
Industrial mesh
Additional vertical distribution bars" />

Short distribution column bars

Industrial mesh
Additional vertical distribution bars

Reinforcement of continuous basement shear

walls with bars

Reinforcement of continuous basement shear

walls with industrial wire meshes

Usually, in the perimeter of the building, in

the storeys above the ground, there is a
seismic joint (30 to 100 mm), or thermal
insulation (30 to 50 mm) which are not
required in the basement. However, their
thickness can be used in the basement
shear walls to secure the cover depth and
to enable the implementation of the
distribution meshes outside the column
reinforcement, as shown at the following
figure.

Lapped splices of vertical bars

The rules that apply are the same with

those mentioned in chapter 3.1.1 that
deals with lap-splices in column rebars.
However, there is one critical difference
that simplifies the lapping of the vertical
reinforcement placed to the shear walls
body: there are no stirrups thus the vertical
co-linearity of the rebars is not necessary.
In walls bodies lapping is being done with
the use of a simple contact lap-splice
parallel to the longitudinal axis of the
element.

Generally, the lap length is not extremely

large because the vertical rebars diameter
is usually small. For a typical diameter
10/B500c, the required lap length is
equal to 540 mm, for con-crete grade
C30/37. For welded wire meshes the lap

length is 70%, thus 0.70*540=380 mm for

the particular example.

Note:
Theoretically, the finest solution is to lap
50% of the rebars at a time in different
heights.
Anchorage of vertical rebars
Bars must be anchored at the upper part of
shear walls. This anchorage must be done
accord-ing to the same rules that apply to

the anchorage of column rebars. However,

as a rule, it is a more simple procedure,
due to the smaller diameter of the vertical
reinforcement placed inside the walls body
and also due to the possibility of rebar
lapping with a contact lap-splice. Two basic cases are defined, anchorage inside
the shear walls mass and anchorage
inside the adja-cent slabs body.

(a) Anchorage of rebars in the shear

walls mass
i) with hooks
The hooks must be formed by a bending
machine with the use of the appropriate
rolls (see 2.6.3). The angle of the hook
might be 135 ,however it is preferred to
be 180.

ii) with an additional rebar

A shaped bar (figure a) provides, apart
from the anchoring, the proper finishing of
the shear wall reinforcement. The use of a
wire mesh (figure b) has a lot of
advantages regarding its implementation
however, due to the welded distribution
reinforcement, the shaped bar, must be
formed to fit between the two parallel
vertical meshes.
This type of anchorage is preferred in most
cases and especially when the accurate
implemen-tation of the walls body rebars
along the height cannot be easily done e.g.
in the case of a basement where the body

rebars are implemented together with the

foundation reinforcement.
(b) Anchorage of rebars inside an
adjacent slab
i) Having a slab on one side
In case the upper part of the shear wall
has only one side connected to a slab, the
outer vertical rebars, may assist in
securing the fixed support of the slab.

An alternative solution is to place a

shaped wire mesh.

ii) Having a slab on both sides

In case the shear wall has slabs on either
side, its rebars can be anchored inside the
slabs mass and at the same time they can
be a part of the required slab support
reinforcement.

Finally, it is highlighted that apart from the

above mentioned solutions there is a wide
range of other combinations.

Starter bars in shear walls

The need to construct co-linear or vertical
shear walls in different phases arises quite
often. Most of the times the starter bars
are placed in the traditional way i.e. by
extending the horizon-tal rebars of the first
shear wall towards the direction of the
shear wall that will be constructed in a
following phase.
In the cases where the new shear wall will
be perpendicular or co-linear with the old
one and the starter bars will cause
problems in further excavations or they will
be damaged by handling machines, the
special technique described below is being
used:

(a) the starter bars are shaped like a hair

pin, their legs are temporarily bent and
they are en-cased in a standardized steel
or in an impromptu (e.g. made out of
polystyrene) thin box,
(b) the thin box is nailed upon the
formwork. Then follows the implementation
of the first shear wall reinforcement and
finally comes the concrete casting,
(c) after the formworks removal, the starter
bars are once again centerlined. If the
encase box is an impromptu construction,
it is removed.
(d) the second shear wall is constructed

The four phases when adding a vertical element

This technique is used either for vertical or

collinear shear walls. It is ideal when
constructing a partial foundation by an
excavating and concrete pouring
sequence. This is used when there is
danger for the adjacent building. We
excavate a part of the common edge and
we concrete the shear wall and its

foundation. Then we excavate the next

part and so on.