Effect of Openings in Shear wall on Seismic Behaviour of RC Buildings

Shear walls along the exterior perimeter of buildings increase the efficiency of buildings to resist seismic forces. In some conditions, the locations of shear walls are very critical because of the demand of architectural openings like doors and windows in the exterior face of the buildings. The literature has revealed that stiffness and seismic response of the structure is affected by the size of openings and location of openings in shear walls. This paper demonstrates effect of static and dynamic actions on 15 storey RC building having shear walls with openings. 32 building models have been prepared in commercial software STAAD for various inline and staggered openings in shear walls. Seismic coefficient method and Response spectrum method are used for seismic analysis. The analysis is carried out for the seismic zones III and IV for hard and medium soil conditions. The paper compares the response of these building models having shear wall with and without openings on parameters of time period, base shear, storey displacement, storey drifts and surface stress distribution. Uniform stress distribution was observed in shear wall with staggered opening as compared to inline openings.