Lateral load behaviour of squat RC structural walls

Structural walls are important component of buildings, which have a high lateral load resisting capacity. These walls increase lateral stiffness of whole structure and reduce the lateral deflection. In low rise buildings, structural walls prevent the collapse of structure during strong earthquakes. Squat RC structural walls resist lateral forces through strut and tie action. An analytical study is carried out to understand lateral load behaviour of squat walls for various aspect ratios of squat walls and wall reinforcement ratios; the diagonal strut width and strut angle are assessed, which are crucial inputs in design of squat walls based on strut & tie approach. The results of nonlinear analyses suggest that strut & tie modelling is possible to design squat walls, because there is an orderly behaviour of walls even at large diagonal angle of wall and therefore of the strut angles. Existing code provisions are compared and new provisions to be included in the Indian codes are suggested.