I believe its a section of a shear wall or entire shear wall segment that gets analyzed individuality to determine moments, shears, and required reinforcements. I've been brushing up on my masonry design since I dont use it often but I came across this is some of my finding. I could be entirely wrong tho....usually when I hear pier its in regards to a foundation or main vertical supporting member.
JAE, Well im a junior structural engineer and wall pier never came across my experience so i needed to know what it's actual mean not the provision we all know in the ACI. Like sometimes it's an option on Etabs to assign walls as piers!
I think you are referring to projections from the face of a wall, at the end or in the interior. For instance if you have a 200 wall, and introduce a 400x400 enlargement (the projection being 200x400) in that wall, that is called a pier, or sometimes a pilaster or masonry column.
