How bearing walls are represented in solver models

Tekla Structural Designer
2021
Tekla Structural Designer

How bearing walls are represented in solver models

Bearing walls have no in-plane or out-of-plane stiffness and resist vertical load only.

For bearing walls the alignment (Front, Middle, or Back) specified in the wall properties is not structurally significant as it has no effect on the positioning of the solver elements in the solver model.

Consider the two stack bearing wall shown below.

bearing_wall_physical_model.png

The solver model for this wall is formed using a series of vertical "wall column" and horizontal "wall beam" solver elements. The beams have pinned ends and are placed at the top of the wall spanning between the columns. The next panel above is pinned to the one below and similarly the lower end of a column is pinned to a supporting beam. At the lowest level the column is 'fixed' to a pinned support.

bearing_wall_solver_model_1a.png

Members supported by the wall either (fortuitously) bear directly on one of the wall columns or on one of the wall beams at the head of the wall. All wall columns and wall beams in an individual bearing wall are given properties automatically by Tekla Structural Designer, based on the width of the bearing wall with which they are associated.

If the bearing wall did not continue to the lowest level, but was instead supported by a transfer beam, then at the lowest level the wall columns would have pinned ends and no supports would be introduced.

bearing_wall_solver_model_1b.png

For bearing walls that are defined between other vertical column members e.g. steel columns, the wall columns at the edge of the panel are omitted and the associated wall beam is connected to the steel column (for example) and the adjacent wall column - as below.

bearing_wall_solver_model_2.png

Wall columns at the edge of the panel are also omitted when it is defined between concrete walls.

Irrespective of whether the wall spans between other vertical column members or not - any load applied to the wall beam at the edge of the panel is shared between the end column and the first internal column. This can result in some load being `lost' directly into the supports.

Load transfer in the bearing wall model is not the same as it would be in for example, a masonry wall. A point load applied at the top of a masonry wall would result in a distributed load on any beam supporting the masonry wall, whereas in a bearing wall the supporting beam would be subjected to a pair of point loads, (or possibly even a single point load if the applied load coincides exactly with a wall column location).

Self weight of the bearing wall is concentrated in the wall beams so seismic weight is concentrated at the top of the wall and not split between the floor above and below.

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