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Earthquake‐induced shear concentration in shear walls above transfer

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Article  in  The Structural Design of Tall and Special Buildings · October 2009

DOI: 10.1002/tal.458

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 Paper submitted to The Structural Design of Tall and Special Buildings, revised on April 2008

EARTHQUAKE INDUCED SHEAR CONCENTRATION IN SHEAR WALLS

ABOVE TRANSFER STRUCTURES

Su RKL1* and Cheng MH2

1
Assistant Professor
2
Student
*Corresponding author

Address: Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong,

Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, PRC

Fax number: (852) 2559 5337

Telephone number: (852) 2859 2648
E-mail address: [email protected]

~1~
ABSTRACT

Due to various architectural constraints and multi-functional requirements for modern

buildings, combined structural forms, which typically include shear wall systems in

higher zones and moment resisting frames together with core walls in lower zones, are

commonly used for these buildings. Transfer structures are often introduced to

transfer the loads from higher to lower zones. Previous experimental and numerical

studies have demonstrated that the exterior walls above the transfer structure are

particularly vulnerable structural members under seismic loading. In this paper, a

qualitative model is presented for simulating the shear concentration effect in exterior

walls with consideration of the local deformations of transfer structures. A parametric

study was carried out to validate the model and to quantify various factors which may

influence the shear concentration effect. A shear concentration factor (SCF), which

can measure the intensity of shear stress concentration in the exterior walls, is defined.

Based on the numerical study, design principles are recommended to seismic

engineers for minimizing the adverse shear concentration effect on exterior walls

under seismic loads.

Keywords: Shear walls, shear concentration, seismic, transfer structures, concrete

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1. INTRODUCTION

Due to a shortage of land and multi-functional requirements in many metropolitan

areas such as Sydney, Hong Kong and Singapore, high-rise buildings with different

usages in higher and lower zones are very popular. Combined structural systems with

shear wall systems in higher zones, together with moment-resisting frames and core

walls in the lower zones, are widely adopted for these buildings. The introduction of

transfer structures between the high and low zones of a high-rise building has become

common. A typical modern residential development in Hong Kong with transfer

structures supported by columns and core walls is shown in Figure 1.

The seismicity level of these metropolitan areas is either low or moderate, and the

peak ground accelerations are all within 0.1 to 0.2 g for a 475-year return period

earthquake. Most of the buildings constructed in these regions have been designed to

resist only wind and gravity loads, and usually lack the ductility and redundancy to

resist seismic loads. In addition, high-rise buildings with transfer structures often have

stiffness and mass irregularities at the transfer level, which are prone to severe

damage in a moderate earthquake. The seismic behavior of buildings with transfer

structures has been studied through shaking table analyses (Ye et al., 2003; Gao et al.,

2003; Huang et al., 2004; Xu et al., 2005; Wu et al., 2007; Li et al., 2006). The

previous studies have demonstrated that under horizontal seismic excitations, soft

storey type failures below the transfer level rarely occurred, probably due to the fact

that this failure mechanism has been extensively studied (Su et al. 2002; Li et al. 2003)

and effective design provisions have been established in various seismic design codes

(ICC 2006, ICBO 1997, EC8 2005, Chinese National Standard 2001 and Chinese

National Specification 2002). However, significant damage to exterior walls and floor

~3~
slabs does occur above the transfer level (see Figure 2), as many building designers

overlook this type of failures. Numerical studies (Xu et al., 2000; Chen and Fu, 2004;

Rong et al., 2004) have illustrated that under seismic excitation, the horizontal shear

force distribution did not follow the proportion of lateral stiffness in each storey; an

abrupt change of shear forces on exterior walls occurred at stories in the vicinity of

the transfer level (Figure 3). This sudden increase in shear force can lead to brittle

shear failure of exterior walls above the transfer level. A comprehensive review of the

seismic response of concrete buildings with transfer structures was conducted by Su

(2008).

In this paper, the mechanism for the formation of shear concentration in shear walls

based on the local deformation of transfer structure is presented. A parametric study

was conducted to validate the proposed mechanism and to study the factors that

influence the shear concentration effect. The findings in this study enable building

designers to have a better understanding of the seismic induced shear concentration in

exterior shear walls in modern buildings with transfer structures.

2. FORMATION OF SHEAR CONCENTRATION AT EXTERIOR WALLS

Transfer structures such as transfer plates and transfer girders are often massive and

stiff. Their presence can affect the displacement responses of the entire building under

seismic excitation and cause an abrupt change in the inter-storey drifts above and

below the transfer level. Many researchers (Zhang et al. 2000; Zhang et al. 2003;

Qain and Wang 2006) have suggested ignoring the out-of-plane deformations of the

transfer plate and adopting rigid plate and rigid diaphragm assumptions in seismic or

wind load calculations. However, the authors propose that such local deformations are

~4~
the primary cause of the abrupt change in shear at the exterior walls and should not be

neglected in seismic analyses.

Figure 4 illustrates the local deformations of a transfer plate under lateral loading. The

interaction of deformations between the transfer structure, exterior walls, core walls

and floor slabs is depicted in Figure 5. Under horizontal earthquake loads, the central

core wall deflects as a vertical cantilever and takes nearly all the base shear. Since the

transfer plate and the core wall are joined together monolithically, the joint of the

plate and core wall is rotated in a similar manner. The global rotation of the plate is

restrained by the edge columns, leading to the development of a pair of push-and-pull

forces in the columns and local deformations of the transfer plate. Likewise, rotations

of the core wall θc and exterior walls θe at transfer level are different from each other.

To reduce the rotation incompatibility between the two walls, the slabs above the

transfer level are deformed and in-plane compressive or tensile restraining forces are

generated in the slabs. These horizontal reactions transmitted from the core wall to the

exterior walls are the origin of the abrupt change of shear forces and the shear

concentration near the transfer level. The amount of horizontal reactions generated

depends on the difference in rotations between the core wall and exterior walls, as

well as the flexural stiffness of walls. Shear failure may occur in exterior walls when

the shear stress is excessive. Moreover, slabs can be damaged by the high tensile

stresses. In the following sections, the mechanism for the formation of shear

concentration at exterior walls will be validated numerically and the factors that

influence the shear concentration effect will be investigated.

3. COMPUTATIONAL MODELING

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Numerical simulations have become a popular and reliable analytical tool for seismic

analysis of buildings (Gao et al. 2003; Huang et al. 2004 and Wu et al. 2007).

Conventional elastic analyses were able to satisfactorily capture the real dynamic

behavior of buildings under frequent earthquakes (Su 2008). In this study, the

commonly available finite element package ETABS (Habibullah 1999) is used to

conduct the numerical simulation. Simple linear-elastic dynamic analysis is employed

to illustrate the effect of local deformation of transfer structure and to quantify various

factors which influence the shear force concentration at exterior walls above the

transfer structure.

Two-dimensional 30-storey building models (see Figure 6) were constructed based on

the frame-shear wall buildings with transfer structures that are commonly found in

China and Hong Kong (Gao et al. 2003; Chen and Fu 2004; Rong and Wang 2004; Li

et al. 2006). In the models, a full elevation center wall is incorporated, while the

exterior walls are introduced only above the transfer floor. A transfer beam is located

at the 3rd floor, whereas columns are provided below the transfer beam to support the

exterior walls. To increase the lateral stiffness of the structure, coupling beams are

used to connect the center wall and exterior wall on each floor above the transfer level.

To ensure the results obtained are sufficiently general and representative of real

applications, four models with different wall dimensions, as listed in Table 2, were

generated. Model A has a 9m-long center wall, while Model B has a 6m-long center

wall. The lengths of Models A and B are both equal to 21m. Models A and C have the

same arrangements in center wall length and coupling beam length, except that Model

C has 4m exterior walls. Finally, Model D has 1.5m exterior walls and a model length

of 26m, which is same as that in Model C.

~6~
The building heights of all the models are 94.5m. The storey heights below and above

the transfer level are 4.5m and 3m, respectively. The basic dimensions of various

structural components are shown in Figure 6. The material properties adopted in the

simulation are shown in Table 1. The models are incorporated with a floor mass

density of 5.5kN/m3, which is the average density of typical residential blocks in

Hong Kong (Su et al., 2003).

The response spectrum (see Figure 7) stipulated in the National Standard (2001) with

Seismic Intensity VII and maximum spectral acceleration of 0.16g is used in the

response spectrum analysis. A damping ratio of 5% to the critical is adopted, and

modal combination of the square root of the sum of the squares is employed. The

computed fundamental vibration periods of the models range from 2.6 to 3.5 sec.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Shear Concentration in the Exterior Walls

The inter-storey drifts of the center wall, exterior wall, and column of Model A are

shown in Figure 8. A significant change in inter-storey drifts at the exterior wall is

observed at the first two stories above the transfer level. Similar changes are not

found at the centre wall, hence there is a large difference in rotations between the

centre wall and exterior walls. The shear force distributions in the center wall, exterior

wall and column are presented in Figure 9. It can be observed that at the same

position above the transfer lever, there is an abrupt change of shear force in both the

center wall and exterior walls. Horizontal shear is transferred from the centre wall to

the exterior walls and the horizontal shear increases to the maximum just above the

transfer level. The result demonstrates that the difference in the inter-storey drifts

between the exterior walls and centre wall above the transfer level is the primary

~7~
factor causing the shear concentration at the exterior walls. The findings further

support the mechanism discussed in Section 2 for the formation of the shear

concentration. Despite that only planar models are considered in this analysis, the

proposed mechanism for the formation of shear concentration at the exterior walls can

be easily extended to other three-dimensional buildings with centre core walls and

exterior walls resting on column-supported transfer plates.

In order to quantify the effects of shear stress concentration in exterior walls above

the transfer level, a Shear Concentration Factor (SCF) is defined in equation (1),

n
Vwj  Awi
SCF  i 1
(1)
Vt Awj

where Awj is the shear area, Vwj is the maximum horizontal shear force of the jth shear

wall at the transfer level, Vt is the maximum storey shear above the transfer structure,

and n is the number of shear walls. The SCF is aimed at comparing the maximum

horizontal shear stress resisted by the exterior wall to the average shear stress above

the transfer level. When the SCF approaches one, there is no shear concentration. In

contrast, when there is shear concentration at the exterior wall, the factor can go up to

4 or above.

4.2 Effect of Transfer Beams

In this section, the influence of the depth of transfer beams on the SCF is studied. The

transfer beam depth is increased from 1.4 m to 2.4 m while all other dimensions

remain unchanged. Figure 10 shows the variation of the SCF against the depth of

transfer beam for Models A to D. The SCFs of all the models are steadily reduced

with the increase in the beam depths. However, the rates of reduction vary among

different models; for example, Model B reduces from 5.3 to 2.8 while Model C

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reduces from 3.7 to 3.2. As mentioned in section 2, the shear concentration is

associated with the difference in rotations between the center wall and exterior walls

above the transfer structure. Figure 11 depicts the rotation difference (θj-θc) between

the exterior wall and centre wall. The rotation difference for Model B is effectively

reduced from 0.00047 rad to 0.00025 rad when the depth of the transfer beam is

increased. The rates of reduction for the SCF (5.3/2.8 =1.89) and for the rotation

difference (0.00047/0.00025 =1.88) are very similar. The results clearly reveal that

the amount of shear force transfer from the center wall to the exterior walls above

transfer level depends on the difference in wall rotations. A stiffer transfer beam can

decrease its own deformations and moderate the difference in rotations as well as the

shear transfer between the center wall and exterior walls.

In order to study the extent of reduction in the SCF due to the increase of beam depth,

the beam stiffness in Model A is hypothetically increased by 10 and 100 times. Figure

12 shows the shear force distributions in the exterior wall. Even when a rigid transfer

beam is used, shear force concentration in the exterior wall above the transfer

structure is still observed. This demonstrates that the effect of shear concentration is

partially due to the intrinsic behavior and interaction of a coupled centre wall and

shear wall structure on a restraint boundary; such effect cannot be completely

eliminated.

4.3 Effect of Exterior Walls

To investigate the effect of exterior wall stiffness on the SCF, the exterior wall length

is increased from 1 m to 5 m while keeping the other properties and dimensions

unchanged. The seismic response of all the models was calculated, and Figure 13

plots the variations in SCF against the length of exterior walls. The variations of all

~9~
the models are very consistent. SCF reaches a peak value of around 3.8 when the wall

length is approximately 2 to 3 m (which is comparable to the transfer beam depth of 2

m), and SCF reduces to around 3 when the wall lengths reduce to 1m or increase to 5

m. It appears that an unfavorable combination of the transfer beam depth and shear

wall length (or beam stiffness and wall stiffness) can worsen the shear concentration.

This is reasonable as when the flexural stiffness of the transfer beam deviates

significantly from that of the exterior walls, the weaker structural components (either

the transfer beam or the exterior walls) will deform more and the amount of in-plane

deformation and in-plane force generated in the slabs will be less. The induced

seismic shear forces in exterior walls should also be smaller.

4.3 Effect of Center Walls and Columns

The center wall thickness and the column size are varied in turn, while the other

dimensions remain unchanged, in order to investigate their effect on the SCF. Figures

14 and 15 illustrate the effects of varying the length of centre walls and size of

columns, respectively, on the SCF. The SCFs vary within a narrow range from 3.2 to

3.8. The result shows that SCF is relatively insensitive to the change in the centre wall

length or column size. It is likely that the flexural stiffness of the centre wall and the

axial stiffness of the columns provided are already high enough; a further increase in

the stiffness does not have much effect in reducing the shear concentration.

4.5 Effect of Storey Height above the Transfer Structure

The effect of storey height above the transfer structures on the SCF is studied in this

section. When the storey height just above the transfer level is increased from 3 m to

9 m, the SCF reduces significantly from the maximum value of 3.7 to around 1.0 for

~10~
Models A, B and D, and to 2.3 for Model C (see Figure 16). Obviously, providing a

higher storey height above the transfer level can decrease the flexural stiffness of the

exterior walls and can effectively reduce the shear force concentration in the exterior

walls.

4.6 Effect of Vertical Positioning of the Transfer Structure

In this section, the vertical location of the transfer beam is relocated from the 3rd

storey to the 6th, 9th and 12th stories respectively. The total number of stories remains

unchanged. The variations of the SCF with the level of the transfer beam are shown in

Figure 17. The SCF is found to be greatly increased from around 3.5 to more than 7.0.

Similar findings have been mentioned by other researchers (Xu et al., 2000; Geng and

Xu, 2002; Wang and Wei, 2002 and Zhang et al., 2003). When the transfer beam is

placed at a high level, the structures below the transfer structure become more slender.

The rotation of the centre wall, as well as the difference in rotations between the

center wall and exterior walls, will be increased. As the shear transfer between the

walls is essentially proportional to the difference in wall rotation, a larger rotation

difference will cause more shear forces to transfer from the centre wall to the exterior

walls and worsen the shear concentration at the exterior walls. For seismic resistant

design, the transfer level should be located at a lower storey (e.g. less than 5 stories

above ground according to GB50011-2001).

4.7 Effect of Stiffness Degradation of Center Wall below the Transfer Level

From the shaking table analyses, significant stiffness degradations were observed

below the transfer level when the models subjected to rare (or major) earthquakes. To

simulate the inelastic behavior of the building during major earthquakes, the stiffness

~11~
of the center wall under the transfer level is reduced, while the other dimensions and

properties are kept constant. Figure 18 shows the variations of SCF due to the

reduction of wall stiffness below the transfer level. When the center wall stiffness

below the transfer level is reduced to 60% of the original value, the SCF increases by

about 30% to 4.5. These results imply that stiffness degradation below the transfer

level could moderately increase the shear concentration at the exterior walls. Hence

the walls below the transfer level should be detailed to have the capacity to undergo

seismic effects without loosing significant stiffness. Otherwise, the effect of stiffness

degradation on the increase in the shear demands at the exterior walls should be duly

designed.

5. CONCLUSIONS

A numerical study has been conducted, aimed at improving the general understanding

of the shear concentration effect on exterior walls above transfer structures under

seismic loads. A parametric study was carried out and the major findings of the study

are summarized as follows:

1. Local deformations of the transfer structures, as validated by the numerical study,

are the primary reason for the formation of shear concentration in exterior walls.

Rigid plate and rigid diaphragm assumptions which ignore such local

deformation should not be used in the numerical simulations of seismic response

of buildings with transfer structures. The transfer structures, the slabs, and

coupling beams should be modeled by flexible beam, plate, or even solid

elements wherever it is appropriate.

2. A shear concentration factor (SCF) is defined for comparing the maximum

horizontal shear stress taken by the exterior wall to the average shear stress

~12~
 above the transfer level. SCF approaches one when there is no shear

concentration, and can go up to four or above when a shear concentration exists.

The present study reveals that shear concentration can be very serious in exterior

walls under seismic loading. Hence shear checking should be conducted for

exterior walls, in particularly, at one and two storey above the transfer level.

3. Stiff transfer beams can moderate, but not eliminate, the shear concentration. The

effect of shear concentration is partially due to the intrinsic behavior and

interaction of a coupled centre wall and shear wall structure on a restraint

boundary.

4. Shear concentration in interior walls is sensitive to an increase of storey height

above the transfer level, but is not sensitive to the change in stiffness of centre

walls and edge columns below the transfer level. An increase of storey height

above the transfer level is helpful in reducing the adverse shear concentration

effect.

5. Placing the transfer structure at a high level can remarkably increase the shear

concentration effect. The numerical study found that the SCF can go up to seven

when the transfer beam is placed at the 9th floor. For seismic design, the transfer

level should be limited to a lower storey (e.g. less than 5 stories above ground).

6. Under major (rare) earthquakes, inelastic deformation would likely occur at the

centre wall below the transfer structure. Stiffness degradation of the centre wall

below the transfer structure could lead to a moderate increase in the SCF by

approximately 30%.

6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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This research has been supported by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong SAR

(Project No. HKU7168/06E).

~14~
REFERENCES

Chen C and Fu X. 2004. The Influence of Transfer Beam Stiffness on the Aseismic
Behavior of Column-Shear Wall Transfer Structure. Building Science. 20 (1): 35-71.

EC8. 2005. BS EN 1998-1:2005. Eurocode 8 Design of Structures for Earthquake

Resistance. General Rules, Seismic Actions and Rules for Buildings. British Standards
Institute, London.

Gao X, Zhou Y, Miao J, and Chen C. 2003. Study on Seismic Behavior of High-Rise
Building Composed of Multiple Sub-Structures. China Civil Engineering Journal. 36
(11): 55-60.

Geng N and Xu P. 2002. Abrupt Changes of the Lateral Stiffness and Shear Forces in
Tube Structure with Transfer Storey. Building Science. 18 (3): 6-15.

Habibullah A. 1999. ETABS (version 7.22) Three Dimensional Analysis of Building

Systems, User’s Manual, Computers & Structures Inc.

Huang X, Jin J, Zhou F, Yang Z, and Luo X. 2004. Seismic Behavior Analysis of a
High-rise Building of Frame-Shear Wall Structure with High Transfer Floor.
Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Vibration. 24 (3): 73-81.

ICBO. 1997. Uniform building code, International Conference of Building Officials,

Whittier, California.

ICC. 2006. International Building Code, International Code Council, Country Club
Hills, IL.

Li CS. 2005. Response of Transfer Plate when Subjected to Earthquake. PhD Thesis.
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong.

Li CS, Lam SSE, Zhang MZ, and Wong YL. 2006. Shaking Table Test of a 1:20
Scale High-Rise Building with a Transfer Plate System. ASCE Journal of Structural
Engineering. 132 (11): 1732-1744.

Li JH, Su RKL and Chandler AM. 2003. Assessment of Low-rise Building with
Transfer Beam under Seismic Forces. Engineering Structures. 25(12): 1537-1549.

National Standard. 2001. Code of Seismic Design of Buildings. GB50011-2001.

Building Industry Press, Beijing, China.

National Specification. 2002. Technical Specification for Concrete Structures of Tall

Building. JGJ3-2002. Beijing, China.

Qian C and Wang W. 2006. Effect of the Thickness of Transfer Slab on Seismic
Behavior of Tall Building Structure. Optimization of Capital Construction. 27 (4): 98-
100.

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Rong W and Wang Y 2004. Effect of the Level of Transfer Slab on Seismic Behavior
of Tall Building Structures. Building Science. 20 (4): 1-7.

Su RKL. 2008. Seismic Behaviour of Buildings with Transfer Structures in Low-to-

Moderate Seismicity Regions. Electronic Journal of Structural Engineering,
(accepted in February 2008)

Su RKL, Chandler AM, Lee PKK, To A, and Li JH. 2003. Dynamic Testing and
Modelling of Existing Buildings in Hong Kong. The HKIE Transactions. 10 (2): 17-
25.

Su RKL, Chandler AM, Li JH and Lam NTK. 2002. Seismic Assessment of Transfer
Plate High Rise Buildings. Structural Engineering and Mechanics. 14(3): 287-306.

Wang X and Wei L. 2002. Study on Influence of the High Level of Transfer Floor on
the Structural Behavior of High-rise Building. Journal of Building Structures. 32 (8):
54-58.

Wu M, Qian J, Fang X, and Yan W. 2007. Experimental and Analytical Studies of

Tall Buildings with a High-Level Transfer Story. The Structural Design of Tall and
Special Buildings. 16 (3): 301-319.

Xu P, Wang C, Hao R, and Xiao C. 2000. Effect of the Level of Transfer Story on
Aseismic Behavior of Shear Wall Structure with Some Supporting Frames. 30 (1): 38-
42.

Xu P, Xue Y, Xiao C, and Wang C. 2005. Seismic Design Concept from a Pseudo-
Static Test of Steel Reinforced Concrete Frame-Core Wall Structure Model with
Transfer Floor. China Civil Engineering Journal. 38 (9): 1-8.

Ye Y, Liang X, Yin Y, Li Q, Zhou Y, and Gao X. 2003. Seismic Behavior and Design
Suggestions on Frame Supported Shear Wall Structures in High-Rise Buildings.
Structural Engineers. 4: 7-12.

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Table 1. Material properties of the models

Property Value
Concrete grade 30 MPa
Poisson’s ratio 0.2
Modulus of elasticity 30 GPa

Table 2. Dimensions of the models

Model a (m) b (m) c (m) Total length (m)

A 1.5 4.5 9 21
B 1.5 6 6 21
C 4 4.5 9 26
D 1.5 7 9 26
where:
a = exterior wall length
b = coupling beam length
c = center wall length

17
Figure 1. A residential development in Hong Kong with transfer structures

18
Figure 2. Structural failure on exterior walls at transfer level (Li et al., 2006)

19
Figure 3. Shear force distribution (Xu et al., 2000)

20
Figure 4. Local deformation of a transfer plate under lateral loading (Li, 2005)

Shear force Shear force T- Tension

increasing decreasing C- Compression

T
C
Shear walls θe1 T θc θe2
C

Transfer Structure

Columns Core wall

Figure 5. Local deformation of the transfer structure and shear concentration at the

exterior

21
 a b c b a

Some basic dimensions

Thickness of center wall=400
Thickness of exterior walls=200
Size of coupling beams =200×400dp
Size of transfer beam= 1500×2000dp
Size of columns =1000×1000
N.B. All units are in millimeters

Coupling

27@3000=81000
Beam

Exterior Center
Wall Wall

Transfer
Beam
y
13500

Column Center
x Wall

Figure 6. A typical structural arrangement of the numerical model

22
 0.18
Spectral Acceleration (g) 0.16
0.14
0.12
0.10
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0.00
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Fundamental Natural Period (sec)

Figure 7. Chinese response spectrum for a moderate earthquake of intensity VII

23
 30

Core wall
Exterior wall
25 Column

20
Floor level

level

15

10

Transfer level

0
-0.0005 0.0005 0.0015 0.0025

Inter-storey drift

Figure 8. Inter-storey drift in Model A

24
 30
Core wall
Exterior wall
Column
25

20
Floor level

15
level

10

5
Transfer
level

0
0 500 1000 1500 2000
Shear force (kN)

Figure 9. Shear force distribution in Model A

25
 6

4 Model A
Model B
SCF

3 Model C
Model D
2

0
1400 1600 1800 2000 2200 2400
Transfer beam depth (mm)

Figure 10. Variation of SCF against the depth of transfer beam

0.00050

0.00045

0.00040

0.00035
θc-θe

Model A
0.00030 Model B
Model C
0.00025 Model D

0.00020

0.00015
1400 1600 1800 2000 2200 2400
Transfer beam depth (mm)

Figure 11. Difference in wall rotations against the depth of transfer beam

26
 30

Beam Stiffness × 1

25 Beam Stiffness × 10

Beam Stiffness × 100

20
Floor level

15

10

Transfer level

0
0 100 200 300 400 500
Exterior wall shear force (kN)

Figure 12. Shear force distributions in the exterior wall of Model A with different

stiffness of transfer beams

27
 4

3
Model A
Model B
SCF

2 Model C
Model D

0
1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
Exterior wall length (mm)

Figure 13. The variations of SCF against the length of exterior walls

3
Model A
Model B
SCF

2 Model C
Model D

0
8500 9000 9500 10000 10500
Centre wall length (mm)

Figure 14. The variations of SCF against the length of centre walls

28
 4

3
Model A
Model B
SCF

2 Model C
Model D

0
1100 1200 1300 1400
Size of column (mm)

Figure 15. The variations of SCF against the size of columns

3
Model A
Model B
SCF

2 Model C
Model D

0
3000 6000 9000
Storey height above transfer level (mm)

Figure 16. The variations of SCF against the storey height above the transfer level

29
 9
8
7
6 Model A
5 Model B
SCF

Model C
4
Model D
3
2
1
0
3 6 9 12
Vertical position of transfer beam (floor level)

Figure 17. The variations of SCF against the vertical position of transfer beam

4 Model A
Model B
SCF

3
Model C
Model D
2

0
original reduced 20% reduced 40% reduced 60%
Stiffness reduction for centre wall below transfer level

Figure 18. The variations of SCF against the reduction of centre wall stiffness

30

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