In most designing cases, design engineers assign shear walls the total
seismic loads while the frames (columns and beams) take the gravity
loads. This procedure imposes additional seismic loads on the buildings;
moreover the Syrian Code requires the application of the requirements
related to seismic resistance on the frame elements (columns, beams and
joints). This design procedure raises two basic issues. The first is the
complete elimination of the frame effect on shear walls behavior
regarding the internal forces and deformations. The second is the effect
of the shear walls on the moment resisting frames behavior. In this study,
the mutual effect of each system on the other is called interaction.
These systems are being studied by formulating several mathematical
models covering buildings with shear walls and frames that have
different heights and walls stiffness, expanding over a range of high and
low stiffness values relative to the total stiffness of the building. Linear
static and dynamic analyses have been applied on these models to show
the possible contribution of frames in the performance of the building in
terms of internal forces and deformations. This study also focuses on the
nonlinear behavior of shear wall-frame structural system by using
nonlinear pushover analysis.
At the end of this study, the most important results and recommendations
are summarized, especially the necessity of considering the interaction
between frames system and shear walls system. Increasing structural
system factor is recommended when seismic loads are calculated. This
leads to a reduction in the seismic loads on buildings.