Concrete Shear Wall Construction

Buildings with cast-in-situ reinforced concrete shear walls are widespread in many earthquake-prone countries and regions, such as Canada, Chile, Romania, Turkey, Colombia, the republics of the former Soviet Union, etc. This type of construction has been practiced since the 960s in urban regions for mediumto high-rise buildings (4 to 35 stories high). Shear wall buildings are usually regular in plan and in elevation. However, in some buildings, lower floors are used for commercial purposes and the buildings are characterized with larger plan dimensions at those floors. In other cases, there are setbacks at higher floor levels. Shear wall buildings are commonly used for residential purposes and can house from 00 to 500 inhabitants per building. This type of construction has been described in the WHE reports from Chile (Report 4), Kyrgyzstan (Report 40), Canada (Report 79), Romania (Reports 78 and 87), Turkey (Report 0 ), and Colombia (Report 09).