Thesis

Reinforced concrete shear walls are an integral part of the lateral force resisting systems in multistory buildings. The behavior of reinforced concrete shear walls is explored with nonlinear finite element software developed by Dr. K.J. Bathe of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Automatic Dynamic Incremental Nonlinear Analysis (ADINA). The purpose of this dissertation is to introduce a useful practical methodology for addressing the nonlinear response of multistory reinforced concrete shear wall buildings. The prospect of applying these nonlinear analysis techniques on a broad scale to other structures is possible, and encouraged.