Strain based panel elements for shear wall analysis

The finite element method (FEM) can be applied to practically analyze the tall buildings in which the shear walls are used to resist the lateral loads. Accordingly, a variety of displacement and strain-based as well as frame macro elements have been proposed for analysis of the tall buildings. With respect to application of the lower order plane stress elements, analytical problems may arise within the numerical process of the finite element analysis. The analytical problems caused by the parasitic shear effects in finite elements and definition of an incompatible rotational coupling at the beam-column and beam-wall joints are the two major issues involved in analysis of the tall buildings. Moreover, such effects can give rise to shear locking based on definition of an incompatible rotational coupling at beam-wall joints. Subsequently, in this paper, new non-linear strain based finite elements are proposed to overcome some of the complications occurring due to above mentioned parameters. These strain-based panel type elements are comprised of eight degrees of freedom and have been formulated on the basis of the general beam elements. In conclusion, the proposed elements can be utilized to accurately analyze the shear walls on the condition that elements are of coarse size of mesh. In addition, a set of numerical analyses are conducted to evaluate the results and indicate that, changes in the power of the strain functions greatly affect the processor in structural modeling.