REINFORCED CONCRETE WALLS IN THE BUILDINGS :-

Reinforced concrete walls in buildings are generally required to carry vertical loads. Sometimes they are also required to carry moments due to lateral loads acting normal to length or normal to thickness of the walls or both. If the lateral loads due to wind or earthquake are acting normal to the depth , the wall may be classified as a shear wall .Shear walls are used in a multistorey buildings with twenty or more storeys. These walls are very effective in resisting severe earthquake forces . Currently, IS :456 ,IS:1893 and IS:4326 are silent about the design of the shear walls.

The wall should have a minimum thickness of 100 mm .A reinforced concrete wall is classified as a short wall if the ratio of the effective height to thickness is less than 12, otherwise it is classified as a long wall.A wall behaves in a manner similar to that of a column and, therefore, it should be designed in accordance with the Recommendations given for the columns .If walls are subject to axial loads and moments they should be designed as columns under un-axial bending. In case of the long walls, Additional moments due to slenderness must be accounted for in the Analysis. The Design of the such walls can be accomplished using the axial force moment interaction curves for columns based on the limit design philosophy required for the Design & Scope of the Structural evaluation .The strength of the wall may be increased depending upon the ratio of its height to length and the length of the wall is overall length or where openings occurred the length between the adjacent openings may be considered for the increase of the strength of the wall .