Piers, Spandrels and Shear Walls, an ETABS classic easy question which I can't find an answer for...

[MartinDZO1]

Good evening everyone, I am trying to design a shear wall according to ACI 318-14 chapter 18.10 "Special Structural Walls". As usual, I need to obtain the Shear and Compressive Forces as well as the bending moment using ETABS.

I know for a fact that Pu is given as a Pier internal element (Axial Force), it is also pretty obvious (altough not 100% sure) that shear is given as a Pier internal element (Shear 2-2).

But for God's sake I cannot figure out which one is the bending moment I need. I think it would be a pier element (M3, bending moment about the 3-axis which is the axis perpendicular to the wall plane).

If that is the case, then a spandrel is not used at all when determining the design forces for a shear wall design? A pier (simulated column) can provide all the internal forces a shear wall experiments?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[bowlingdanish]

Without opening ETABS I think that's correct.

Spandrels are horizontally spanning members, so should be used when designing deep beams or lintels above wall openings. It's all just what ETABS calls things though. You could call a wall a spandrel and get the same result, just the 1-1,2-2,3-3 would be different, and you might have turn your computer 90 degrees to read the output.