Wall Gravity Forces
The following figure shows a configuration of a wall member comprised of a single finite element that has a sloped edge at top and bottom of the wall. Member resisting forces calculated at the corner of the walls are used to calculate wall member forces. Therefore,
| Wall Shear Force = F1 + F2 | Equation 3 - 4 |
| Wall Axial Force = F3 + F4 | Equation 3 - 5 |
| Equation 3 - 6 |
Due to modeling and analysis accuracy considerations, walls may be meshed by the program. In this case, axial force, major axes shear and overturning moment of the meshed wall system is reported instead of reporting individual wall member forces. This is explained in the Figure below where a wall system is meshed with 3 sub-wall elements (Figure (a)) and the program reports combined effects as shown in Figure (b). Note that all reported values are calculated at the centroid of the wall system, which is automatically calculated by the program.
Wall Sign Convention
Reported forces for wall members include axial force, major axis shear and major axis bending moment (overturning moment). The following figure shows the positive direction of wall member forces. It should be noted that the axial and shear forces are constant through the height of the walls.
