Analysis of shear wall structures on elastic foundations

A method for analyzing shear wall structures on elastic foundations is presented. The shear walls are modeled using a nine-noded isoparametric quadrilateral plane stress element and the soil is modeled using a three-noded quadratic element that includes the Vertical subgrade reaction and soil Shear stiffness. It is observed that analyzing shear wall structures as fixed cantilevers, i.e. ignoring soil-structure interaction, significantly underestimates the wall drift. It is shown that including soil shear stiffness in the analysis reduces the maximum drift and increases the normal stresses in the wall, especially for poor soil. It is also shown that ignoring the soil deformation underestimates the bending moment in the lintel beams of coupled shear walls, and the transverse bending moment in core structures. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.