Structural Walls

1. Load Bearing Walls - As the name itself suggests that, the whole building structure is rested on walls instead of columns. In general, the loads from slab transfers to the beams, from beams to the columns and then spread to the foundation. From the above image, you can identify that the structure has beams and slabs but not columns. In simple words, whether its exterior or interior walls, the wall which is bearing the whole weight of the structure, including self-weight of structural elements is called Load bearing wall. Strip foundation is adopted for the load-bearing type of wall.

2. Shear Walls - Shear wall is the wall which is constructed around the lift pit, Water sump or Staircase to retain the soil. Any shear wall bears two pressures on it either it may be wind pressure and soil pressure or wind pressure or water pressure . Shear wall is adopted to resist these forces. These walls are used to carry the lateral force exerted on the structure due to wind, earthquake or any other lateral load. To make it clear, Let us take an example of the overhead water tank. Overhead tank is exposed to the wind as it is constructed on heights which share Wind pressure on it. The water tank has water in it which creates water pressure inside the tank. Shear wall resists these forces without any deflection. We will explain more about shear wall soon in a separate post.

Core wall is Shear Wall constructed from the foundation and it raised upto the height of the building. In this type of wall, the wall itself acts as a column. Core wall is built to carry the lateral force exerted on the structure due to wind, earthquake or any other lateral load.