Abstract: “U – shaped shear walls are commonly used in buildings to surround elevators and stairs. In process of design of a new building or evaluation of an existing building, analytical model of this type of shear wall is important to estimate reliable results. U – Shaped shear wall can be modelled with shell element or equivalent frame element. It is obvious that using shell element gives closer results, however using shell element increases the analysis duration and long analysis duration is not preferred by the engineers. In this study, effect of U – shaped shear wall with different leg length and using different modelling technics such as shell element and equivalent frame element has been investigated.”

Keywords: U – shaped shear wall, reinforced concrete building, modal analysis, frame element, shell element