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Reinforced Concrete Walls
• A reinforced concrete wall is a vertical load-
bearing member whose greatest lateral
dimension is more than four times its least
lateral dimension, and in which the
reinforcement is taken in to account when
considering its strength.
• For walls subjected predominantly to out-of-
plane bending, the rules for slabs apply.
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A reinforced wall shall be considered as either short
or slender and as either braced or unbraced as
follows:
• Short or Slender Walls: A wall may be considered
short when the ratio of its effective height to its
thickness does not exceed 7. It shall otherwise be
considered slender.
• Braced or Unbraced Walls: A wall may be
considered as braced if, at right angles to the plane
of the wall, lateral stability to the structure as a
whole is provided by walls or other suitable bracing
designed to resist all lateral forces in that direction.
It shall otherwise be considered as unbraced.
Design of Reinforced concrete Walls for Flexure and
Axial Loads
• Walls subject to combined flexure and axial load
shall be designed under the provision of chapter
4 ebcs 2 1995 .
• Effective Height: The effective height Le of
reinforced concrete walls in the non-sway mode
shall be determined from,
Le = βL
Where L is the story height of the wall
β is the coefficient defined below
• Walls with two edges restrained β = 1.00
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• Walls with three edges restrained
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β= > 0.3
1 + (L / 3b )
2
• Walls with four edges restrained
1 for L < b
β=
1 + (L / b )
2
1 for L > b
β=
2(L / b )
Where b is the width of the wall measured
center – to- center of the bracing walls, or width
measured from the center of a bracing wall to
the free edge.
Shear Resistance of Reinforced Walls
Design for horizontal shear in the plane of the wall
shall be in accordance with provisions for beam with
the following modifications:
• The effective depth d shall be taken as 0.8b.
• When the applied shear Vsd is less the Vc/2, the
minimum shear reinforcement shall be provided.
• Design for shear forces perpendicular to the face of
the wall shall be in accordance with provision for
slabs.
Size
• The thickness of load bearing walls shall not be less
than 1/25 of the unsupported height or width,
whichever is shorter, nor less than 150mm.
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Vertical Reinforcement
• The area of vertical reinforcement shall not be less than
0.004A, nor more than 0.04A. The upper limit shall be
observed even where bars overlap.
• For walls with a larger cross section than required by
considerations of loading, a reduced effective area not less
than one-half the total area may be used to determine
minimum reinforcement and design strength.
• The diameter of vertical bars shall not be less than 8 mm.
• The spacing of vertical bars shall not exceed twice the wall
thickness nor 300mm.
Horizontal Reinforcement
• The area of horizontal reinforcement shall not be less than one half of
the vertical reinforcement.
• The spacing of horizontal bars shall not exceed 300mm. The diameter of
horizontal bars shall not be less than one quarter of that of the vertical
bars.
• Horizontal reinforcement shall enclose the vertical reinforcement. The
horizontal bars shall be tied to the vertical bars so as to form a rigid mat.
Transverse Reinforcement
• The mats at the two faces of a wall shall be connected to each other by
at least 4 transverse S-ties per m2, when the diameter of the vertical
reinforcement is 16 mm or greater.
• If the area of required reinforcement exceeds 0.02A, then ties as
required for columns shall be provided.
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• Example: A 2.6m long RC ground floor shear wall
in a multi storey building has an effective and
total height of 3m. The wall is subjected to a
design axial load of 6650 kN. The bending
moments and shear forces are negligible. Using C-
25 concrete and S-30 steel design the wall, use
EBCS provision and assume class I works.
Solution
• Design constants
0.85 f ck 0.85 * (0.8 * 25 ) f yd =
f yk
=
300
= 260.87 Mpa
f cd = = = 11.33Mpa αs
αc 1. 5 1.15
• Wall thickness, t 2600
= 104mm
t ≥ 25
150mm
• Take t =200mm
• For a RC wall subjected to axial compression load Nd,
Nd < Ac . fcd + As. Fyd
⇒ 6650 * 103 N < (2600 *200 ) *11.33 + As * 260.87
6650 * 103 N < 5891.6 *103 + As *260.87
758.4 *103 < 260.87 As
⇒ As > 2907.2 mm2
Take As = 2950 mm2
• For vertical reinforcement, Asmin = 0.004 Ac = 2080
mm2 < As
• As max = 0.04 Ac = 20,800 mm2 > As
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Spacing of vertical bars
• Area of steel on two faces = As /2 = 2950/2 = 1475
mm2
• Using φ12 bar (as = 113.04 mm2), No of bars on
one face = 1475/113.04 = 13
⇒ Spacing = 2600 /13 = 200mm
• (Sprovided = 200mm) < 300mm
2t = 400mm
S vertical ≤ or
300mm
∴ provided vertical bars of φ 12 c/c 200mm on each
face.
Horizontal Reinforcement
• As the shear force is negligible use,
As horizontal > Asvertical/2 = 1475mm2
As in one side = 1475/2 = 737.5mm2
Using φ 8mm bars (as = 50.24 mm2) ,
No of horizontal bars in one side = 737.5/50.24 =
14.68 = 15
⇒ Spacing of horizontal bars = 3000/15 = 200
mm < Smax = 300
∴ Use φ8 c/c 200 horizontal bars
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Example 2
• Determine the main reinforcement bar required
for a RC wall subjected to axial compression and
uniaxial inplane BM using EBCS provisions.
Given:
Action effect
• Design axial compression force = 1650 kN
• Design inplane BM = 480kNm
Material
• C-25 concrete, S-300 steel, class I
• Wall x – section → 200 × 1200mm
Solution:
Using EBCS column design chart,
• d’/h = 300/1200 = 0.25
Nd 1650 *103
ν= = = 0.607
Ac * f cd (1200 * 200) *11.33
Md 480 *106
µ= = = 0.147
Ac * f cd * h (1200 * 200) *11.33 *1200
• Using ν, µ and uniaxial chart No 9 ω= 0.2
• The area of steel required,
ω * Ac * f cd 0.2 *1200 * 200 *11.33
As = = = 2084.72
f yd 260.87
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• Using φ 14 bar (as = 153.86 ), the number of bars
required = 2084.72/153.86 = 13.6
• Take 14 φ 14 ( 7 φ 14 on each side of wall)
• Spacing = 1200 – 25 – 7/7 = 165 < 300 mm
∴ provided vertical bars of φ 14 c/c 160mm on
each face.
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