Parametric study of coupled wall behavior - Implications for the design of coupling beams

Coupled walls are known to be efficient lateral load resisting systems; however, the relationship between their global and local behavior is not well understood and has been shown to result in structural systems having excessive internal deformation or strength demands on their component substructures. In order to investigate appropriate parameters for identifying efficient coupled wall geometries, an initial parametric study of over 2000 coupled wall geometries is reported. These analyses permitted the evaluation of the sensitivity of the structural response to various geometric parameters. The objective of this study is to investigate the elastic response parameters of coupled wall structures and to identify parameters that will permit an accurate initial estimate of the global behavior of a coupled system, the local behavior of the coupling beams and the interaction between the global and local behaviors. Using elastic analysis and gross section properties, the role of representative geometric parameters in the response of coupled structures is illustrated. The effect of using various code-prescribed reduced section properties is also discussed. The critical role of the coupling beam design is also illustrated.