Earthquake response of coupled structural walls

In many tall buildings coupled structural walls provide the required stiffness and strength to resist lateral loading that arises from gravity, wind, and earthquake effects. In this paper, the inelastic response of such walls under earthquake loading is investigated and equivalent pushover analyses carried out to determine a measure of the dynamic amplification factors for these structures. The investigation looks at the use of different hysteretic models to describe the behaviour of both the inelastic wall members and the coupling beams. The walls are modelled either by beam-column elements or by wall elements developed to more accurately account for the actual distribution of reinforcing steel. Hysteresis loops measured in previous experimental work were used as the basis for the hysteresis models used to describe the behaviour of the coupling beams. The effect of different earthquakes on the magnitude of the dynamic amplification is also investigated