Effects of Podium Interferences of Shear Force Distributions in RC Walls Supporting Tall Buildings

Abstract

High rise constructions featuring a podium surrounding tower walls are often favoured for the versatile functionality of the building. It is shown in this paper that the podium can impose significant differential restraint on coupled tower walls. Incompatible tower wall displacements under lateral loads were found to be the main contributor to the generation of in-plane strutting forces in floors above and below the podium-tower interface level. Shear force localisations in the interior tower wall immediately above the interface was found to be the direct consequence of these actions. Key parameters contributing to this detrimental shear force localisation in a tower wall were analysed by wa..