Free vibration of core wall structure coupled with connecting beams

In this paper, a core wall structure coupled with connecting beams is discretized and modeled as an equivalent thin-walled member with closed section, while the connecting beams between openings are replaced by an equivalent shear diaphragm. Then, a numerical method (finite member element method, FMEM) for dynamic analysis of the core wall structure is proposed. The numerical method combines the advantages of the FMEM and Vlasov`s thin-walled beam theory and the effects of torsion, warping and, especially, the shearing strains in the middle surface of the walls are considered. The results presented in this paper are very promising compared with the ones obtained from finite element method.