There are two main reasons for the opening of shear wall;

1. From the perspective of architectural structure, the opening is for the placement of doors and windows (usually windows, rarely doors), or the installation of equipment, such as vents, exhaust fans, etc

2. From the perspective of structural mechanics, if the internal stress is too large, holes shall be opened where necessary to release the internal stress

Shear wall opening requirements

(1) The opening in the corner of the shear wall structure of high-rise buildings needs to improve the seismic grade of the wall limbs on both sides of the opening, and strengthen the reinforcement and structure of the corner beam on the corner window.

(2) For a long shear wall, when the wall limb length exceeds 8m, a structural hole needs to be opened, and the opening of the structural hole does not need to be strengthened, just pay attention to avoid cracks in the wall at the opening.

(3) The hole of the shear wall is reserved during the structural design. The hole above 800mm shall be provided with concealed beams, and the hole below 800mm can be arranged crosswise along the perimeter of the hole with deformed steel bars.

(4) The pipe where the shear wall passes through the coupling beam should be embedded with casing pipe. The effective height of the upper and lower sections of the opening should not be less than one-third of the beam height, and should not be less than 200mm. The opening should be equipped with reinforcement bars.

In general, it is better for the shear wall to have no holes than to have more holes, to have fewer holes than to have more holes, to have smaller holes than to have larger holes, and to have a single row of holes than to have multiple rows of holes.

FRP Strengthening of Shear Walls with Openings