Standard Shear Walls - The Analysis of Irregular Shaped Structures - page 326

F i g u r e 9.1 Single-story shear wall analysis.

manufacturer. Anchor bolts in the bottom plate resist the wall shears and keep the wall
from sliding off of the framing or foundation below. The code specifies the maximum
spacing of the anchor bolts, but the designer should verify the adequacy of the code
maximum and decrease the spacing as required. Several methods are commonly
used to establish the length of the moment resisting arm used for calculating the
hold-down force, depending upon which text is used as a standard. Some engineers
use the full length of the wall for the moment arm. This approach is incorrect, unless
tie strap anchors are used as shown in configuration 1 of Fig. 9.2. The most common
approach is to use the length of the wall minus the distance from the end of the wall
to the center of the hold-down anchor, as shown in configuration 2. Another approach
is to use the distance between the centerline of the studs at each end of the wall, as
shown in configuration 3. The author's preference is to use the distance between the
centerline of the bearing area at the compression studs to the centerline of the hold-
down anchor bolt at the tension studs, as in configuration 4. The analysis for the wall
is as follows:

V
L

v = wall shear(plf)

SW