International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering (IJITEE)

ISSN: 2278-3075, Volume-8 Issue-8 June, 2019

Seismic Performance Evaluation of Hybrid

Coupled Shear Walls in High Rise Buildings
Abhishek Sharma & Prince Sharma

ABSTRACT: The efficiency of coupled shear walls in high rise The entire shear wall is divided into two wall piers joined
buildings is the key factor for the performance of overall by coupling beams which can be conventional RC Coupling
structure during seismic hazards. The coupling beams in a Beams, Steel links or composite link coupling beams. These
coupled shear wall dissipate seismic energy and act as a fuse
between two shear walls and attain maximum damage in coupling beams undergo large inelastic deformation or can
earthquake. The objective of this research is to observe the non- be called the deformation controlled elements in
linear analytical behaviour of coupling beams by using ETABs performance bases designs. The performance of these
and to select appropriate section from conventional reinforced coupling beams must be checked with non-linear analysis.
concrete coupling beams, steel link beams and composite steel – For static non-linear analysis, Pushover Analysis can be
concrete coupling beams in a high seismic zone. From the non- performed. Non Linear Dynamic analysis can be performed
linear static analysis it isclearly observed that coupling beams
behaves as a shear dominated beams rather than flexure. The using Non-Linear Time History Analysis.
steel link coupling beams deformed in a more ductile way as The linear elastic response spectrum analysis can’t be a
compared to the RC coupling beams and composite steel-concrete right choice for observing the performance of these coupling
coupling beams. The concept of Braced Coupled Shear walls is beams due to high shear demands and large axial forces
also presented in this comparative study distributed by the walls piers from the ground acceleration.
Keywords: RC Coupling Beams, Steel links, steel-concrete 1.1 Characteristics & Benefits
composite link, PBD Performance Based Design, non - linear
pushover analysis, plastic hinges. The coupling effect revealed these main benefits (Pauley
& Priestly, 1992):
I. INTRODUCTION  The main function of coupling beams is to transfer
In this modern era of construction technology, high rise the high shear from one wall pier to the joined wall
buildings are the only option left for structure engineers due pier. Many Coupling beams are designed as
to less ground space available for construction. For building flexural members with shear confinement which
High Rise Structures, designers needs to analyse various further leads to diagonal tension failure. To
lateral load resisting systems and their effect on the overall overcome the diagonal tension failure, diagonal
performance of the structure during seismic events and high bars are provided with proper confinements which
wind guests. The buildings with core shear wall are always are either in compression or in tension over the full
being the functional choice for resisting the torsional effects length.
and overall deflection of the building. In thisresearch, the  These coupling beams are the primary source of
behaviour of Special Moment Resisting Frame (SMRF) with dissipating seismic energy and are known for the
Core Shear Wall is taken into design consideration. The large inelastic deformations or deformation
flexural deformation of moment resisting frame (MRF) and controlled elements.
shear wall is relatively opposite which in the combination  The span to depth ratio of these coupling beams is
behave as a perfect sway resisting mechanism (Bungale S. relatively low hence their performance is largely
Taranath). The large stiffness of these core shear wall affected by high shear forces.
reduces the response factors i.e. Maximum Storey (Khatami & Zehrai, 2011) conducted non-linear analysis
Displacement, Storey Drift and allows the building to not on the behaviour of steel link beams, composite link beams
exceed the displacement limits and storey drifts in the in coupled shear wall and RC coupling beams and found
codalprovisions. But due to architectural limitations, the composite link beams asmuch more efficient source of
door openings to be assigned for vertical functionality of the energy dissipation over RC coupling beams and steel link
building as a lift service continues till the overall height of beams. (Harries et al. 2000) shows importance of composite
the core shear wall reduces the relative stiffness of the core coupling beam designed with built up steel shapes and so
shear wall. Hence core shear walls are always constructed as called hybrid coupled shear wall which can be preferred in
coupled shear walls with coupling beams. high seismic zones. He included the effect of embedded
length of composite beam in wall piers in the performance
of the coupled shear wall. (Chairunnisa et al. 2016) brings
the idea of steel truss coupling beams and detailed the

Revised Manuscript Received on June 07, 2019

Abhishek Sharma, M.E. Student, Department Of Civil Engineering
Chandigarh University Gharuan
Prince Sharma, Assistant Professor, Chandigarh University Gharuan

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 Seismic Performance Evaluation of Hybrid Coupled Shear Walls in High Rise Buildings

connection difficulties for coupling beams and choose to of embedment for adequate shear capacity. Shear studs are
design coupling beams as shell elements to obtain the design designed with suitable depth for better bonding with
forces and concluded shell-frame elements are efficient and concrete. But for the better flexibility the embedment length
appropriate for the non-linear analysis of coupled shear is kept low. If the embedment length is considered large
wall. But later on (Nofal & Elsayed, 2017) depicts the shell then damage to the joined wall is much during seismic
elements gives the accurate design forces. (Bhunia et al. event. It was observed during analysis that plastic hinges are
2003) conducted a large study on behaviour of coupled formed in the base of the coupled shear wall. The steel link
shear walls under non-linear static analysis and discussed beams are designed with low depths and meets the demands
completely about the type of reinforcement used in coupling of architectural aspects for opening sizes very well. Also the
beams and its ductile deformation analytically and found stiffness provided by steel link beams is greater than
behaviour of coupling beams should be governed by shear conventional reinforced coupling beams as per the extensive
while following the standards from FEMA 356 and ATC 40 research work done previously on steel link beams.
and concluded that base of coupled shear wall can be a
1.4 Composite Steel – Concrete Beams
pinned restraint because it shows better non-linear behaviour
rather than fixed base conditions. The benefits of composite steel – concrete coupling
The depth of coupling beams is always being a frequently beams is observed in resisting the web and flange buckling
discussed parameter in previous researches as depth of of the steel encasement. When composite steel – concrete
coupling beam decides the angle of inclination (α) of coupling beams are provided with reinforcing bars the web
diagonal reinforced bars (Pauley & Priestly, 1992). If the and flange thickness can be kept minimum without using
angle of inclination is low the diagonal reinforcement can’t web stiffeners. The hysteretic response of steel – concrete
be able to transfer large axial forces into wall piers composite couplings is very stable. The connection strength
adequately and remains in flexure which is not the relevant between wall and coupling beams is generally dependent on
behaviour of coupling beams. In conventional RC Coupling the reinforcement of wall boundary element, if the wall
beams, the top and bottom rebar undergoes tension or boundary element is conventionally reinforced it may not
compression simultaneously and leads to the diagonal develop adequate strength but if the boundary element is
cracks. According to IS13920:2016; if τve> 0.1 (Ls/D) reinforced with steel column having reinforcing bars around
then diagonal reinforcement is recommended to resist and proper confinement then the whole composition behaves
earthquake produced shear in coupling beams. However very well and damage to the boundary element can be
guidelines provided by Indian Codes are very limited for the permitted inside permissible limits and similarly with the
practical behaviour of coupling beams and there is no any coupling beams.
description provided for the performance based designs
(PBD). An updated context is needed in Indian standards II. MODELLING PROCEDURE
regarding performance based designs. A regular geometry for a commercial office building
As per FEMA 356, ATC 40 coupling beams are (G+20) Special Moment Resisting Frame (SMRF) with
dominated by shear rather than flexure if ϕ ≤ 2 or Lb/Db≤ 4. Coupled Shear Walls in the core situated in seismic Zone V
The plastic moment capacity and yield moment capacity of having zone factor 0.36 and soil type medium stiff and
the coupling beams must be kept low such that the rotations Importance Factor (I) 1.5is modelled by using ETABs 2015
in coupling beams are greater than the plastic moment which is a modern structural analysis software package used
capacity so that coupling beams can dissipate much seismic worldwide for performing both linear and non-linear, static
energy. as well as dynamic analysis. The methodology adopted in
this research is Pushover Analysis which is a non-linear
1.2 Diagonally Reinforced Coupling Beams static method of seismic analysis and comes under
The coupling beams having such a low span to depth ratio performance based design procedure.
smaller or equalto 2.0 can be designed with diagonal
reinforcement for fulfilling the demand of high shear forces
and sustaining the diagonal tension and compression
distributed by the two joined wall piers. The diagonal
reinforcement intersects at mid span with no moment
resistance. While in conventional reinforced coupling beams
the compression forces are transferred by concrete whereas
longitudinal reinforcement doesn’t pay any significant role.
Due to large axial forces tension reinforcement yield and
cracks are developed and further increase in axial forces
leads to the overall failure of the coupling beams. Hence
diagonal reinforcement is effective in high seismic zone and PLAN
for low span to depth ratio coupling beams.
1.3 Steel Link Coupling Beams
Steel link coupling beams are designed with I-Section
which is embedded into the wall piers up to a desired depth

Published By:
Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering
Retrieval Number: H7104068819/19©BEIESP 1388 & Sciences Publication
 International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering (IJITEE)
ISSN: 2278-3075, Volume-8 Issue-8 June, 2019

Although Indian Standards IS1893:2016 and

IS16700:2016 has given some provisions related to the
stiffness modifiers for cracked section for beam 0.35Ig,
columns 0.7Ig, slabs 0.25Ig and walls 0.7Ig but still missing
the exact criteria for designing coupled shear walls. The
results of response spectrum analysis observed can,t be the
right choice for observing the behaviour of coupling beams
in coupled shear walls.

2.1 Pushover Analysis (Non Linear Static)

ELEVATION Pushover analysis are performed by assigning non linear
Figure 1: Configuration of Analytical Model plastic hinges which can be moment rotaion or moment –
curvature hinges or can be user defined. In these analysis
Table 1: Dimensional Properties of Various Structual more priority is given to the shear deformation controlled
Members hinges because coupling beam are shear dominant elements
so assigning moment rotation or moment curvature hinges is
Member Dimension Unit : mm
not appropriate choice, although reinforced coupling beams
Periphery Columns 600 x 800
are analysed for flexure controlled hinges and acceptance
Inner Columns 600 x 600
criteria is checked with accordance to FEMA356 and
Walls: W1, W2 300
ATC40 given in Table 3. ETAB’s itself calculates target
RC Coupling Beams: LB1 300 x 1200
displacement according to the FEMA356 as per the overall
Steel- Concrete Composite Link
350 x 850 height of the building
Beams: LB2
Table 3: Acceptance Criteria Given by FEMA356 for
Steel Links Coupling Beams LB3 ISMB 600 Non Linear Flexure Contolled Elements
Braces ISMB 500
RC Beams 300 x 650
RC Slab 150
Depth of the wall (Lw) 3200
Length of Coupling beams(Lb) 2000
Bottom Storey Height(GF) 4500
Storey Height (N) 3200

Gravity loading given by IS875 (Part 1) for selfweight of

structural elements and imposed loads on floor according to
IS875 (Part 2) is followed appropriately. A floor finish load
of 1.5KN/m² and imposed load of 3KN/m² is distributed
uniformly on RC Slabs and wall load of 6.5KN/m (AAC
Blocks 300mm thickness having density 550-650 kg/m³) is III. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
applied on beams. Also live load reductions are included Performance evaluation is done on the basis of plastic
according to the IS 875 (Part 2). But this research is mainly hinge behaviour. The backbone curve obtained from the non
focused on the behaviour of coupling beams only so the rest linear static analysis for different types of coupling beam
of structural elements is considerd elastic throughout the sections are obtained and it is observed that the plastic
analysis procedure. The concrete (M40 grade) and steel hinges assigned to conventional RC Coupling are gone to
(Fe500) were considerd for columns and (M30 Grade) for the collapse prevention (CP) state as shown in fig.3. which
beams for achieving the strong column weak beam effect. is the least damage state considerd in non linear analyis. The
The poisson’s ratio is taken 2.0 of concrete with unit weight displacement found in coupled shear walls for steel link
25KN/m³ and poisson ratio of steel is 3.0 with unit weight beam coupled shear wall is 12.35cm, 12.42cm for
78.5KN/m³. The role of stiffness modifiers is absent from composite link beams and 18.34cm for conventional
Indian and International codes for coupling beams. Only few reinforced concrete coupling beams. In this research only
International Standard Construction Codes provide stiffness the inelastic deformation of coupling beams and coupled
modifiers in case of coupling beams given in Table 2 walls are taken into consideration and rest of the sructural
Table 2: Recommended Stiffness Modiefiers according elements are considerd elastic throughout the analysis.
to various International Codes The backbone curve show the exact non-linear behaviour of
a hinge and shows the strength and deformation relationship

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 Seismic Performance Evaluation of Hybrid Coupled Shear Walls in High Rise Buildings

(b) Hinge Response for Steel Link Coupling Beams

The steel link coupling beam analysis gives the most
ductile behaviour over rest of the coupling beam section
used in non-linear static analysis for a high shear (V2) of
1877KN and attains a plastic deformation of 120mm and
remains in Life Safety (LS) while conventionally reinforced
concrete beams failed the acceptance criteria according to
FEMA356 and ATC40. So in storeys having high shear
forces which fails the plastic hinge mechanism formed in
coupling beams can be designed a steel link having a
composite column as a boundary element.
(a)

(b)
Figure 2: Backbone Curve of Plastic Hinge Formed in
Convention RC COUPLING beam (a) Acceptance
Criteria for Hinge (b) Hinge Response (a) (b)
Whereas a composite steel-concrete link beam performs Figure 4:(a) Plastic Hinges Formation in Steel Link
better for the same storey’s coupling beam, plastic hinges Coupling Beam (b) Plastic Hinges Formation in Braced
assigned remains in Life Safety (LS) state for the relatively Coupled Shear Wall
equivalent amount of shear force as shown in figure Table 4: Axial Forces in Braces from Analysis of Braced
Coupled Shear Walls

.
(a)

Note – All negative forces are tensile forces and positive

are compressive.

(b)
Figure 3: (a) Hinge Response for Steel – Concrete
Composite Link Coupling Beam

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 International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering (IJITEE)
ISSN: 2278-3075, Volume-8 Issue-8 June, 2019

Table 5: Hinge State of Composite Steel- Concrete Steel Concrete coupling beams”.(BMS) Dept. of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
Link Beam 45221-0071.
4. DipenduBhunia, Vipul Prakash & Ashok D. Pandey (2013), “A
conceptual design approach of Coupled Shear Wall”. Hindawi
Publishing CorporationISRN Civil EngineeringVolume 2013, Article
ID 161502, 28 pages.
5. Fortney et al. (2007), “Large scale testing of a replacable Fuse steel
coupling beams” J Struct. Engg., ASCE 2007; 133 (12):1801-7
6. FEMA356:2000 Seismic performance assesment of buildings,
Volume 1-Methodology, FEMA P-58-1, Washington, DC; 2012.
7. Eljadei& Kent A. Harries (2014),“Design of coupled walls structures
as evolving structural systems”. Elsevier, 73 (2014) pp 100-113
8. Ji X, Wang et al. (2017), “Seismic behaviour and fragility curves of
Table 6: Hinge State of Steel Link Coupling Beams re- placeable steel coupling beams with slabs”. Engg Structures
2017;150:622–35.
9. Liu D (2017), “Study on seismic behaviour and resiliency of Novel
Hybrid Coupled Wall Structures”. AISC Seismic Provisions for
Structural Steel Buildings (ANSI/AISC 341–10)
10. T. Pauley & Priestley (1992), Seismic Design of Reinforced Concrete
and Masonary Buildings. ISBN 0-471-54915-0
11. BIS IS 456:2000 Plain and reinforced concrete-code of practice. New
Delhi (India): Bureau of Indian Standards; 2000”.
12. BIS IS 1893:2016 Criteria for earthquake resistant design of
structures, Part 1. New Delhi (India): Bureau of Indian Standards;
2002”.
13. BIS IS 13920:2016 Ductile detailing of reinforced concrete structures
subjected to seismic forces-code of practice. New Delhi (India):
IV. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Bureau of Indian Standards; 1993”.
 Through a vast hinges response recorded from non
- linear static analysis it was observed that
assignment of plastic hinges in coupled shear walls AUTHORS PROFILE
exhibits important properties of coupling beams
ABHISHEK SHARMA, Student of Master of
and overall behaviour. Technology in Structural Engineering in department
 Steel link beams shown adequate strength and of civil engineering in Chandigarh University,
Punjab, India. Completed B.Techin Civil
ductility over concrete link beams and huge amount Engineering from Shiva Institute of Engineering and
of shear is observed by the steel links beams. The Technology, Bilaspur (Himachal Pradesh)
Completed secondary education from Govt. Senior
shear controlled plastic hinges assigned to
Secondary School Dehar (HP) Nothaving any
conventional RC beams was found in Collapse type of membership in any journal.
prevention state which is considered most
damageable state in performance based design
(PBD) whereas composite steel-concrete coupling Er. Prince Sharma,Assistant Professor in
department of civil engineering in Chandigarh
beams remains in Life Safety (LS) and steel link University, Punjab, India. Completed Master of
beams performed enormous shear absorption but Technology in Structural Engineering from Indo
Global Enginnering College Chandigarh.Completed
still plastic hinges formed gone to the Intermediate B.Tech in civil engineering from RBIENT College
Occupancy (IO) which means core shear wall can Photo Hoshiarpur, Punjab, India. 4 research paper
be operated during seismic hazards and not in case published in different journal of civil engineering
field.
of RC coupling beams.
 The elastic analysis of coupled shear walls can’t be
adopted because coupling beams undergoes large
inelastic deformations in designing coupled shear
walls. Braced coupled shear walls also can be a
better option in high seismic zone as the diagonal
braces distributed maximum axial forces from one
wall pier to the joined wall pier by means diagonal
braces.

REFRENCES
1. S. M. Khatami & S. M. Zahari (2011),“ Non - Linear lateral
behaviour of coupled shear walls having different link beams” First
middle east conference on smart monitoring Assesment and
Rehabilitation of civil structures 8-10 Feb2011, Dubai, UAE
2. Yungon Kim (2013), “Pushover analysis of Reinforced Concrete
structures with coupled shear wall and moment frame”. The 2013
World Congress on Advances in Structural Engg. And Mechanics.
(ASEM13) Jeju, Korea, Sept 8-12, 2013.
3. Kent A. Harries, M.EERI, Bingnian Gong & Bahram M. Shahrooz
(2000), “Behaviour and Design of Reinforced Concrete, Steel and

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