Assessment of shear deformations on the seismic response of asymmetric shear wall buildings

It is well known that shear deformations are of paramount importance in the planar two dimensional (2D) analysis of shear wall systems, both for strains and stresses, so they should be included in the analyses of such systems. Shear deformations are also included in 3D analyses of shear wall systems; however, to the writers knowledge, other writers have not previously assessed the specific impact of shear deformations on the 3D behavior of structures. This technical note presents a study where the impact of shear deformations of wall systems in the location of centers of rigidity or torsion (CTs), static eccentricities (e(s)), and spatial distribution of shear forces for shear wall buildings are assessed, comparing them to the results when shear deformations are not included. It is shown that shear deformations associated with the rotational degrees of freedom of walls impact the location of CTs, e(s) and the relative distribution of shear forces; therefore, the aspect ratio of the walls (h/L) is an important variable to consider for these systems. For these systems one cannot define a geometrical locus of the elastic centers of rigidity of the floors, even for systems with the same distribution of walls in all floors.