Plane concrete shear walls have been used successfully in low and mid-rise buildings for the last 30 years to furnish the required resistance to wind and seism ic forces. Due to functional requirements, doors, windows and other openings are often required in each level of some shear walls. These openings can make an accurate three-dimensional analysis of the latera l load-resisting system extremely difficult. In practice, it is desirable to develop an approximate, but rational, relationship between the lateral displacements of perforated and solid walls. Once the ratio of these displacements is estimated, alls with openings may be modeled as a solid wall with reduced equivalent thickness. This study describes the development of a nine-noded finite element model and discusses the computation of deflection atios between perforated and solid walls. Walls that are 18, 26 and 36ft (5.49, 7.92 and 10.97 m) long are considered with up to six stories and with one, two or five lines of openings. To illustrate the application of the proposed method, a design example is worked out.
