PERGAMON Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 41±55

Three-dimensional ®nite element analysis of shear wall

buildings
N.K. Oztorun a, E. Citipitioglu b, N. Akkas c, *
a
Department of Civil Engineering, Gazi University, 06531 Ankara, Turkey
b
Department of Civil Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
c
Department of Engineering Sciences, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

Received 17 October 1995; received in revised form 1 October 1997

Abstract

A three-dimensional ®nite element computer analysis of multistorey building structures, made of pierced shear
walls of open and/or closed cross-sections and ¯at plates, is presented. The computer program developed for this
purpose provides a special and powerful mesh generation subroutine. A graphic program is also developed to
prepare the data interactively by utilizing a screen graphic option. The structure model can be created or modi®ed
very easily with the use of the present mesh generation program. The beams or columns can be added or cancelled
with no diculty at all. The plate ®nite element developed can represent the membrane as well as the bending
behaviour of the shear wall and the ¯oor components. The program developed is used to obtain solutions to some
realistic structures to determine the bounds of the simplifying assumptions commonly made for the analysis of
multistorey building structures. The program is also capable of performing analysis by using conventional simpli®ed
models of multistorey structures and of verifying the bounds set for the assumptions. # 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd
and Civil-Comp Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction classi®cations [1±7]. Firstly, the data required to de®ne

Speci®cation of data is the ®rst contact a user has with
a program. It is likely that some users will have no
knowledge of the intricacies of ®nite element formu-
lation, so data speci®cation should be in a format
natural to the particular problem in hand. Thus ap-
preciable savings in both computation time and man-
hours expended accrue if the input data can be scruti-
nized and any errors detected in some automatic man-
ner before computation begins. For this purpose, error
diagnostic subroutines are generally included in most
of the ®nite element programs [1±4]. For regular
meshes, automatic mesh generating routines save time
and help to reduce errors.
For any general purpose ®nite element analysis the
input data required can be subdivided into three main
* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
the geometry of the structure and the support con-
ditions must be furnished. The geometry of each indi-
vidual element must be speci®ed by listing in a
systematic way the numbers of the nodal points which
de®ne its outline. Each element is identi®ed by its el-
ement number. With the geometry of the structure
de®ned it is now necessary to specify the boundary
conditions. Secondly, information regarding the ma-
terial properties of the constituent materials must be
prescribed. The ®nal category concerns the loading to
which the structure is subjected [8±10]. Obviously, a
consistent set of units must be employed for all input
data. Provided that all length and force terms are
input in the same respective units, then the resulting
displacements and stresses will be similarly dimen-
sioned.
Since by far the greatest task in any ®nite element
analysis is generally the preparation of the input data
and, in particular, de®nition of the nodal coordinates

0045-7949/98/$19.00 # 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd and Civil-Comp Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 4 5 - 7 9 4 9 ( 9 8 ) 0 0 0 2 0 - 0
42 N. Oztorun et al. / Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 41±55
and element topology, any savings in e€ort that can be
made in this area will be important. For this purpose
mesh generation programs can be developed. These are
generally of two types:
1. Where an electronic digitizer is employed to de®ne
and produce the geometric data.
2. A semi-automatic approach where the structure is
divided into a few large zones and the ®neness of el-
ement subdivision within each is speci®ed. The in-
itial data is input in the normal way and the
subdivision proceeds automatically.
After the geometrical input data has been prepared, it
is worthwhile to plot this automatically before
attempting a ®nite element solution. Indeed, a graphi-
cal plot of the mesh o€ers a far better check on the
geometric data than the use of error diagnostic subrou-
tines. Since even if no data errors are detected by the
diagnostic subroutines and a ®nite element solution is
performed, it is still possible that the coordinate lo-
cation of some nodal points may be incorrect and that
the aspect ratio or distortion of some elements may be
unacceptable for an accurate solution. If a sophisti-
cated application is envisaged, a preliminary plot of
the mesh can often result in large savings with respect
to abortive runs. Graphics programs can also be uti-
lized in the processing of the ®nal results [3, 4].
Plotting packages have been developed for plotting the
deformed shape of the structure, producing stress con-
tours or principal stress vectors, etc. Such plots indi-
cate to the engineer the areas where a closer
examination of the stresses is necessary; the computer
printout being employed at this stage. Interactive
graphics systems are already having an impact in this
area also, with programs being developed to allow the
engineer to isolate and display critical regions of a
structure and to vary the output quantity being
plotted. Ultimately it may be possible to dovetail the
entire operation, with the data being generated and the
results obtained and displayed in one operation, lead-
ing eventually to an interactive analysis/design process.
2. Previous studies
Although some approximate methods have been
used to establish solutions for laterally loaded frames,
the results obtained are not within acceptable limits.
These methods frequently provide unsafe solutions and
should not be used. The Muto method [11] is one of
the techniques used for lateral load analysis.
Everard [12] claims that the portal method solution
was shown to be totally incorrect when compared with
the solutions of computer programs, SAPIV and
TAFAP. Rosman [13] presented an approximate
method for the analysis of shear walls with a concen-
trated load applied at the top of the shear wall and a
uniform load acting along the height of the structure.
Parme [14] mentions that, although computer pro-
grams would enable an engineer to determine readily
the interaction between frames and shear walls, there
still remains a need for a rapid manual method of
determining the proportion of load carried by each el-
ement. MacLeod [15] investigated di€erent aspects of
shear wall±frame interaction. He also proposed a
method very similar to that given by Rosman [13]. He
indicated that the ®nite element analysis of shear walls
would give the most correct solution. Kristek [16] stu-
died a folded plate approach and presented a method
in 1979.
Smith and Girgis [17, 18] presented an analysis of
non-planar shear wall assemblies by means of an ana-
logous frame. They also presented another frame
model for the analysis of shear wall systems. They
developed two types of frame models instead of using
wide column analogy for the analysis of shear walls.
Lew and Narov [19] provided an approach to analyze
a shear wall as a three-dimensional equivalent frame.
Chakrabarti et al. [20] investigated the structural beha-
viour of prefabricated shear walls. The results are com-
pared with the results of general purpose computer
programs. Current practice is to utilize the computer
programs [21±23] which consider ¯oors to be in®nitely
sti€ in their own plane. For structures having long and
narrow rectangular shapes and L or T shapes in plan,
the validity of this assumption should be checked after
the analysis by comparing the story sway with the
maximum relative in-plane de¯ection of the ¯oor dia-
phragm under wind and earthquake loads. Hejal and
Chopra [24] presented the earthquake response of tor-
sionally coupled buildings for a wide range of the sys-
tem parameters. They identi®ed the e€ects of lateral±
torsional coupling on building motions, arising from
lack of symmetry in building plan by comparing the
responses with those of corresponding torsionally
uncoupled systems [25]. Dario and Ochoa [26] studied
the seismic behaviour of reinforced-concrete, slender
coupled wall systems and the constitutive elements (i.e.
coupling beams and structural walls). Behr and
Henry [27] studied the assumptions of the approximate
methods. Tso [28] clari®ed the de®nitions of eccentri-
city used in two of the approaches to calculate story
torsional moments in the design of torsionally unba-
lanced multistorey structures.
Many special purpose computer programs have been
developed for the analysis of building structures [21±
23]. However, most of the programs do not give
special recognition to the fact that building structures
are of a very special class of structures from the ana-
lytical point of view. Moreover, current design codes
do not specify failure criteria explicitly either and they
 N. Oztorun et al. / Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 41±55
are based on stress resultants (internal forces) acting
on the member cross-sections. Consequently, there is
not much use to compute accurate stress distributions
from the design point of view to make the code check.
All of the special purpose programs are based on
some assumptions in the formulation. In some compu-
ter programs such as Super ETABS [23], which analyze
the structure in three dimensions, the slab connecting
the structural elements, walls or columns is taken to be
a single element in its own plane. The realistic three-
dimensional behaviour of shear walls can not be taken
into account properly. The ACI Committee Report [29]
contains a review and an evaluation of various struc-
tural systems employed in current building practice,
with particular reference to their function in resisting
lateral loads. During the past 30 years, the ®nite el-
ement method has become the standard procedure for
the analysis of all types of complex civil engineering
structures. General purpose ®nite element programs
can be used for two- or three-dimensional analysis of
complex multistorey shear wall building structures [1±
4], but three-dimensional ®nite element analysis of the
shear wall buildings by using general purpose ®nite el-
ement programs is neither practical nor economical.
Excessive modelling e€ort, time of input preparation
and computing cost are not justi®ed.
3. The program, mesh generation and data structure
A three-dimensional ®nite element computer analysis
of multistorey building structures made of pierced
shear walls of open and/or closed cross-sections and
¯at plates is presented. A computer program, named
TUNAL, based on the ®nite element technique is
developed. The program automatically evaluates the
statically equivalent earthquake loads and, when
necessary, modi®es these loads together with the
boundary conditions and sectional properties of the
structural components located on the axis of symmetry
by considering the symmetric and/or anti-symmetric
conditions. The equivalent horizontal earthquake
loads, calculated in accordance with the Turkish
Earthquake Code [30], corresponding to each storey
are calculated and distributed to the nodal points of
the ¯oor elements. Storey ¯oor loads are also auto-
matically distributed to the nodal points of the ¯oor
slabs in proportion to the ¯oor area surrounding the
nodal point. A special rectangular plate ®nite element
with 6 nodal DOF is used in the program. Most of the
available general purpose ®nite element programs con-
sider 5 DOF at the nodal points [1, 2]. The present el-
ement is formulated by combining bending and plane
stress cases. The element is fully compatible with space
®nite elements and can be used to analyze both shear
walls and ¯oor slabs. The displacement functions of
43
the plate element are developed using Hermitian in-
terpolation functions. Corners of the element are con-
sidered to be rigid. Accordingly, rotations of the edges
connected to the same nodal point are assumed to be
equal and inplane shear strains, hence the shear stres-
ses at the corners of the element are equal to zero. The
e€ect of the rigid corner assumption is to make the el-
ement relatively sti€ for representation of the plate
shear deformations; however, due to cubic displace-
ment functions used in the derivation, the element is
extremely good for representing inplane deformations
also. The formulation and the sti€ness terms of the
®nite plate element used in TUNAL are given in detail
in Refs [31, 32]. Numerical solutions were obtained for
some simple plane stress and plate bending problems
with known analytical solutions to determine the capa-
bilities of the plate ®nite element developed. The el-
ement is capable of achieving extremely accurate
results with a relatively small number of elements. An
example building is shown in Fig. 1 with di€erent ®nite
element models and with a typical deformed shape.
This example is used to investigate the e€ect of the
aspect ratio of the element on the results. Number of
elements representing the ¯oors between the axes of
shear walls varies between 8 and 36 and the aspect
ratio of the elements varies betveen 1/6 and 6/1 in the
example problem considered. The di€erences between
the results on displacements and stresses of the struc-
tures, having the same geometry and the same bound-
ary conditions but modelled by a di€erent number of
elements, is less than 4% for all the cases considered.
Three-dimensional computer analysis of building struc-
tures using general purpose ®nite element programs is,
in general, neither practical nor economical. Excessive
modelling e€ort, time for input preparation and com-
putation cost are not justi®ed. Furthermore, capacities
of commonly available computer programs are limited.
For example, SAP90 can, in theory, handle upto
16,000 equations [2]; but in practice, a three-dimen-
sional structure with no more than 6000 equations
only can be analyzed with this worldwide used pro-
gram depending on the number of elements, nodal
points, loading conditions, band width etc. On the
other hand, TUNAL's capacity is limited simply by
the capacity of the computer available. All variables
are in double precision and, theoretically, a structure
with 750,000 equations can be analyzed. The program
has been used for the analysis of structures with
unknowns more than 125,000 and the half-band width
larger than 2500. In addition, component based input
and output options provide a powerful control on the
analysis and save time. The sti€ness matrices of the
®nite elements in local and global coordinate systems
are obtained analytically and the sti€ness terms are
de®ned in various subprograms for the elements in the
following directions:
44 N. Oztorun et al. / Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 41±55

Fig. 1. An example building with di€erent ®nite element models and typical deformed shapes to investigate the e€ect of aspect
ratio.

1. perpendicular to global x-direction;
2. perpendicular to global y-direction;
3. perpendicular to global z-direction;
4. for general orientation of the plate elements.
Matrix multiplication, numerical integration and sti€-
ness transformation are not required. Run time of the
computer program and the round of errors are, thus,
minimized.
Five pre- and post-processing computer programs
have been written. The system macro ¯ow diagram is
presented in Fig. 2. Functions of some of these pre-
and post-processing programs are summarized here for
clarity. Thousands of nodes and elements are required
 N. Oztorun et al. / Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 41±55
Fig. 2. Macro ¯ow diagram of TUNAL and pre- and post-processors.
to prepare an appropriate model for the ®nite element
analysis. The maximum number of nodes considered in
TUNAL during the present study was 5365. A special
mesh generation program, MESHGEN, has been
developed. This program reads the values of variables
from a data ®le named AXES.DAT and produces ®les
to be used by the ®nite element program TUNAL,
DXF (a program preparing three-dimensional ®les for
the drawing program ACAD) and PLOT (a graphic
program developed to prepare the data interactively by
utilizing a powerful screen graphic option). The input
data of a storey of the building structure with repeti-
tive storey planes having a very large number of DOF
requires no more than a couple of lines of input. The
model can be created or modi®ed easily. The beams or
columns can be added or cancelled easily by typing a
couple of characters. The user will not have to deal
with the nodal points and the elements. It is sucient
to specify the structural components required such as
moment distribution on any shear wall, or a slab or a
column. The following output ®les are automatically
produced by MESHGEN.
. BB.DAT includes general information such as num-
ber of joints, number of elements, number of joints
subjected to concentrated loads, etc.
. PLATE.DAT includes connectivity array of plate el-
ements together with the material property number
and axis number which is perpendicular to element
face for each element and material properties of
each di€erent material.
. FRAME.DAT includes connectivity array of frame
elements together with the sectional property num-
ber and direction of the element and material and
45
sectional properties of each di€erent type of sec-
tion.
. TRUSS.DAT includes connectivity array of truss el-
ements together with the sectional property number
and material and sectional properties of each di€er-
ent type of section.
. SPRING.DAT includes the boundary spring rigid-
ities and the joint numbers of the springs where the
springs are attached to consider the elastic behaviour
of the soil optionally.
. POINT.DAT includes numbers and coordinates of
the nodal points.
. LOADS.DAT includes joint numbers and the com-
ponents of the loads which are applied to the de®ned
joint, support conditions and external displacement
components (optional).
4. Results
Results of a shear wall building structure are pre-
sented. The main objective is to investigate the e€ect
of foundation ¯exibility and ¯oor sti€ness on the de-
sign parameters. Finite element models of the structure
are generated and analyzed using TUNAL program.
A three-dimensional shear wall building structure
which is planned to be constructed in Turkey is ana-
lyzed. Di€erent types of ¯oor plans of the structure
are shown in Figs. 3±5. Only half of the structure is
modelled by utilizing the symmetric behaviour of the
structure about the axis of symmetry. The e€ect of the
¯oor torsion is not considered in this example,
although it can be taken into account if necessary.
Lateral earthquake loads are applied to half of the
46 N. Oztorun et al. / Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 41±55
Fig. 3. First type of plan view of the example problem.
structure in the y-direction. Boundary conditions con-
sidering the symmetric behaviour about the y-axis are
automatically generated by the computer program.
Vertical loads are considered to be 12.0 kN/m2 for the
evaluation of the equivalent static earthquake loads.
Three di€erent types of ¯oor plans are modelled.
The ®rst type of plan geometry is used for the ®rst 16
¯oors including the foundation mat. The ®rst type of
¯oor section of the structure is composed of 16 shear
walls in the x-direction and 11 shear walls in the y-
direction as shown in Fig. 3. Then four of the upper
¯oors are represented by the second type of plan geo-
metry as shown in Fig. 4. The remaining two ¯oors at
the top are represented by the third type of ¯oor geo-
metry as shown in Fig. 5. The change in plan along
the elevation can be taken into account very easily.
Fig. 6 shows the ®nite element modelling of the ®rst
¯oor. Fig. 7 shows the ®nite element model of the
shear wall PY7 of the second type of plan (i.e. the ®rst
shear wall in the y-direction of storeys 17 and 20).
Note that the nodal point and element numbering of
the system is automatically produced by the computer
program. Both the input and the output can be
obtained on a component basis. This plot option is
provided for theoretical studies and generally is not
required in practice. Deformed shape is plotted in
Fig. 8, which also shows the change in the plan along
the elevation. Thickness of each shear wall is equal to
20 cm. A twenty-two storey structure is modelled by
14 cm thick ¯oor slab plates. The height of the ®rst
storey is equal to 4.11 m and the heights of the remain-
ing storeys are equal to 2.79 m. Equivalent lateral
earthquake loads are calculated properly in accordance
with the Turkish Earthquake Code. Lateral loads are
automatically generated by the program and applied in
y direction to the nodal points of the slab elements.
 N. Oztorun et al. / Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 41±55
Fig. 4. Second type of plan view of the example problem.
Two ®nite element models are prepared to see the
e€ect of the boundary conditions.
(a) The foundation of the structure is modelled with
®nite elements representing mat foundation and
linear boundary springs are provided at the nodes
of the ®nite elements which represent the mat foun-
dation to consider the elastic behaviour of the soil.
In-plane motion of the structure at the foundation
level is prevented. E€ect of the soil rigidity is inves-
tigated using this model. Modulus of subgrade
reaction of the soil is considered as 24.0 MN/m3.
This value approximately corresponds to the mod-
ulus of subgrade reaction of Ankara clay. A few
analyses have been performed to investigate the
e€ect of the soil properties, but only one of the nu-
merical results of the analysis is presented in this
study.
47
(b) Nodal springs and the ®nite elements representing
the mat foundation are not provided in the second
®nite element model. The boundary conditions at
the bottom of the shear walls are modelled to be
completely constrained in each degree of freedom.
Both models are executed ®rst for a structure having
rigid slab plates in the plane of the plate, and then the
same model is executed with slab plates having normal
sti€ness of 14 cm thickness. In total four analyses have
been performed for the structure. The models analyzed
can be summarized as follows:
(i) elastic foundation, ¯exible slab in the plane;
(ii) elastic foundation, rigid slab in the plane;
(iii) rigid foundation, ¯exible slab in the plane;
(iv) rigid foundation, rigid slab in the plane.
48 N. Oztorun et al. / Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 41±55
Fig. 5. Third type of plan view of the example problem.
All six degrees of freedom for the rigid ¯oor assump-
tion are taken into consideration. This way, the results
can be evaluated at the corresponding degrees of free-
dom. The rigidity of the elements representing the
storey ¯oors is increased by de®ning two thicknesses
for each element. First thickness value is used for the
terms corresponding to plane stress and the second
one is for the plate bending part of the equations. The
following are investigated.
4.1. A. In®nitely rigid or ¯exible ¯oor assumption
In earlier works, multistorey building structures were
represented by models assuming in®nitely rigid or ¯ex-
ible ¯oors. In the case of modern high-rise buildings,
¯oors are, in general, neither in®nitely ¯exible nor
rigid. In this study in®nitely rigid and ¯exible ¯oor
assumptions are investigated and the results are com-
pared with those of a slab with appropriate rigidity.
Practical bounds are established for the assumed con-
ditions.
4.2. B. Shear stresses around shear walls
Localized stresses in the ¯oor diaphragms around
the shear walls having open and/or closed cross-sec-
tions may become very critical in the design of ¯oor
slabs around the shear walls. A technique which
enables the computation of localized stresses in the
analysis is developed in the study.
4.3. C. Pierced shear walls of open and/or closed cross-
section
There are many approximations developed for the
analysis of building structures containing pierced shear
 N. Oztorun et al. / Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 41±55 49

Fig. 6. Finite element model of the ®rst storey ¯oor.

walls. The validity of these assumptions and their
bounds have not yet been thoroughly investigated. The
e€ect of the openings on the sti€ness and on the loca-
lized stresses in shear walls is investigated as a part of
this study.
Bending moment, shear force and axial load dia-
grams at a vertical axis passing through the midpoint
of the width of each shear wall are obtained. It is
observed that the rigid ¯oor assumption of such a
building with complicated geometry and shear wall lo-
cation may have a signi®cant e€ect on the shear distri-
bution along the height of the shear walls.
Consequently, the in-plane rigid ¯oor assumption may
change the shear force distribution along the height
signi®cantly, especially at the lower levels of shear
walls. It is seen that the sign of the shear distribution
along a shear wall may change depending on the rigid-
ity and location of shear wall. Behaviour of the shear
walls is di€erent. Some of the walls have a tendency to
exhibit a cantilever behaviour and some of them show
shear wall behaviour, but behaviour and displacements
of the shear walls are forced to be compatible at the
levels of storey ¯oors by the slab plates. Therefore, a
signi®cant change on the shear distribution on the
walls may occur [31, 32]. A sudden jump in the shear
distribution generally occurs between the bottom of
the wall and the ®rst ¯oor elevation. This e€ect may
continue along a couple of storey elevations on some
shear walls. This change causes tensile and compressive
stresses in the ¯oor slabs. Additional axial tensile
50 N. Oztorun et al. / Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 41±55
Fig. 7. Finite element model of the shear wall PY7 of the sec-
ond type of ¯oor.
stresses require additional reinforcement and must be
considered in the design. These stresses may exceed the
allowable tensile load carrying capacity of the ¯oor
slabs and cause cracking of the slab plate. In this case,
the punching shear reinforcement must be provided
during the design. Additionally it is seen that the in-
ternal stresses may change along the shear walls sud-
denly at the ¯oor levels where the properties of the
¯oor plan are changed. Horizontal shear distribution
along the shear wall PY2 in the y-direction is shown in
Fig. 9. This wall possesses uniform cross sectional
properties along the height of the building. The shear
wall PY6 of the ®rst type of ¯oor continues as PY5 at
storeys 17±20 and as PY6 at storeys 21 and 22. A very
signi®cant jump in shear forces and in in-plane forces
is seen at the elevations corresponding to the change in
the plan geometry. The magnitude, the location and
the sign of the jump in the forces occurring in a shear
wall di€er depending on the assumptions on the in-
plane rigidity of the slab and/or on the rigidity of the
soil. For the analysis under consideration, 322 frame
elements are used. The total number of elements is
4735, the number of nodal points is 3740, the area in
the plan is 343.664 m2, the number of equations is
22440, and the half band width is 1080. The boundary
spring rigidities at the nodal points of the foundation
are de®ned to represent the soil rigidity. The program
can automatically evaluate the statically equivalent
earthquake loads and modify these loads together with
the boundary conditions and sectional properties of
the structural components located on the axis of sym-
metry by considering the symmetric and/or anti-sym-
metric conditions. The vertical load applied on the
storey ¯oors is equal to 12.0 kN/m2 and the lateral
earthquake load coecient is de®ned as 0.13.
Equivalent horizontal earthquake loads for each storey
are calculated in accordance with the Turkish
Earthquake Code [30]. Modulus of elasticity and
Poisson's ratio are equal to 210 GPa and 0.17, respect-
ively. All of the link beams have 20 cm width and
69 cm depth. The horizontal loads correponding to
each storey are calculated by the program and the
storey loads are distributed to the nodal points of the
¯oor elements considering the symmetric loading con-
ditions. Storey ¯oor loads are automatically distributed
to the nodal points of the ¯oor slabs in proportion to
the ¯oor area surrounding the nodal point. Horizontal
earthquake loads are applied in the y-direction for the
example considered. The deformed shapes of the build-
ing considered under horizontal earthquake loads are
presented in Fig. 8. The vertical loads are not con-
sidered in this analysis. Maximum and minimum
de¯ections and rotations are given in the following
Table 1.
5. Conclusions
A three-dimensional ®nite element technique is
developed for the elastic analysis of shear wall building
structures which are constructed using tunnel forms.
Shear walls and ¯at plates constitute the vertical and
horizontal load bearing elements in these structures. In
general, structural members are exactly the same in all
of the ¯oors, except that the ®rst ¯oor above the foun-
dation may be of di€erent height. Mat (raft) foun-
dation is used due to the fact that space between the
shear walls is rather small for the strip foundation. A
special purpose ®nite element computer program
named TUNAL is developed for the analysis.
Rectangular plate ®nite elements having 6 DOF per
node are incorporated. This element is formulated
by combining bending and plane stress cases. The
 N. Oztorun et al. / Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 41±55 51

Fig. 8. Deformed shape of the example problem with elastic foundation.

resulting model is fully compatible with space ®nite el-
ements and can be used to analyze shear wall and
¯oor slabs. Rectangular ®nite elements are based on
cubic Hermitian displacement functions. Elements
based on these functions represent inplane defor-
mations very satisfactorily. Pre- and post-processing
programs which are part of TUNAL allow the utiliz-
ation of minimum amount of input data by eliminating
element and node numbering and numerical and
graphical display of output on the screen as well as in
the forms of lists or plots. Since the program devel-
oped gives the stress distributions along the structural
components in local and/or global coordinates, re-
inforcements can be calculated easily. Convergence stu-
dies are performed on four structures using several
models to check the performance of the rectangular
®nite elements. Acceptable results are obtained with
coarse meshes and good convergence observed on the
models tested.
Utilization of general purpose ®nite element pro-
grams such as SAP90 seems to be impractical for the
analysis of such structures due to the large amount of
input required and the limitation of the total DOF.
Pseudo-3D analysis programs such as ETABS or gen-
eral purpose programs can be utilized with reasonable
input and computer time by assuming in®nitely rigid
52 N. Oztorun et al. / Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 41±55

Fig. 9. Shear distribution along the shear wall PY2.

¯oor slabs in their plane. The rigid ¯oor assumption
does not allow the computation of in-plane forces.
Consequently, e€ect of in-plane forces must be neg-
lected in design. One of the main objectives of this
study is to investigate the magnitude of in-plane forces
in the ¯oor slabs. The rigid ¯oor slab is represented by
taking increased thickness for plane stress part of the
rectangular plate element incorporated in TUNAL.
Thus, in order to simulate rigid ¯oor assumption, regu-
lar and increased in-plane sti€nesses are considered for
¯oor slab ®nite elements.
The e€ect of foundation ¯exibility is also investi-
gated. Flexibility of the foundation must be considered
in the design of shear wall structures. The ®nite el-

Table 1
De¯ections and rotations for the building considered
De¯ections (m) Dx Dy Dz

Max. 0.000342 0.07976 0.01256

Min. ÿ0.000788 0.00000 ÿ0.01293
Rotations (rad) yx yy yz
Max. 0.0032463 0.0018475 0.0002036
Min. ÿ0.0017740 ÿ0.0036477 ÿ0.0002503
 N. Oztorun et al. / Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 41±55 53

ement model of the mat (raft) foundation together
with linear vertical springs at the nodes representing
soil ¯exibility can be generated in the framework of
TUNAL. The e€ect of the change of ¯oor plan in
upper stories is also investigated. The following are the
conclusions:
1. It is customary to assume that ¯oor slabs are in®-
nitely rigid in their plane. The present study
revealed that regular and sti€ ¯oor slab assump-
tions resulted in some changes in the distribution of
story shears among the shear walls. However, the
most important conclusion is the realization of sig-
ni®cantly high in-plane forces acting on the ¯oor
slabs at lower and upper stories. These forces are
very critical in the design because they produced
tensile stresses around 3.5 MPa or more, as seen in
Fig. 10. It is not possible to determine these in-
plane forces in the ¯oor slabs with rigid ¯oor

Fig. 10. Inplane stress distribution along the ¯oor slabs in the y direction. (A) For storey 22, axes K12±B12. (B) For storey 1, axes
M15±A15.
54 N. Oztorun et al. / Computers and Structures 68 (1998) 41±55
assumption. The in-plane forces are not currently
considered in the design of ¯oor slabs.
2. Shear wall building structures constructed by tunnel
forms normally contain total shear wall area
between 4 and 8% of the ¯oor area in each princi-
pal direction. Floor slabs seem to be more critical
than the shear walls due to large shear wall area.
Failure of the ¯oor slabs rather than shear walls is
expected under extreme earthquake conditions.
3. As pointed out by earlier research work, foundation
¯exibility is important in the behaviour of shear
wall structures. In this study it is observed that the
¯exibility of the foundation has signi®cant e€ect on
the distribution of story shears among shear walls
and the in-plane forces in the ¯oor slabs.
4. Separation of box, U and other types of shear walls
in x- and y-directions into di€erent walls in the
pseudo-three-dimensional programs produces sig-
ni®cant errors because longitudinal shear force
along the shear wall junctions as well warpings in
torsion are not taken into consideration.
5. An improved simpli®ed method for the analysis
seems to be inappropriate. Three dimensional ®nite
element analysis as presented in this study is the
proper method of solution. The increasing capacity
and speed of computers together with appropriate
software shall make the ®nite element approach a
very convenient design tool.
Acknowledgements
This research is supported by The Scienti®c and
Technological Research Council of Turkey through
project no. INTAG 515.
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