Optimum design of coupled shear wall structures with stiffening coupling beams

It is shown in experimental study that the coupled shear walls with stiffening coupling beams is superior to the common coupled shear walls in aseismic performance. But the available method of determining the optimum locations and number of stiffening coupling beams is not presented currently. In this paper, several hypotheses based on uniformly coupled shear walls are made. The restraining effect of weak coupling beams is incorporated to walls whose rigidity is expressed with equivalent rigidity. Thus, the coupled shear walls is simplified to a coupled shear walls which only includes stiffening coupling beams. The restraining moment applied to walls is acquired through the equation of deformation compatibility at the location of stiffening coupling beam. The top drift of structure is got with unit-load method. The optimum locations are obtained by maximizing the drift reduction caused by the stiffening coupling beams. While the needed number of stiffening coupled beams is worked out according to the top drift of structure meeting the serviceability limit state.