Three-Dimensional Interaction of Walls and Frames

The three-dimensional interaction of several plane walls, open section walls, and plane frames is studied under the action of horizontal forces. Walls are taken to have infinite shear rigidity while warping effects are considered. Frames are treated as vertical cantilever beams with infinite bending moment rigidities but finite shear stiffnesses. The floor slabs are replaced by an infinite number of diaphragms with no transverse stiffness but infinite in-plane rigidity. The stiffnesses of the walls and frames are assumed constant throughout the height of the building. A system of three differential equations of the third order solves the problem in a way similar to the displacement method. The method is useful in providing a general view of the macroscopic behavior of the structure through the use of a small number of elastic parameters.