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Shear Wall
STRUCTURE & PHYSICSintermediate
Definition
A rigid vertical wall designed to resist lateral forces — wind and seismic loads — acting parallel to its plane. In tall buildings, shear walls (often reinforced concrete cores) are the primary means of resisting the horizontal forces that could cause a building to sway or overturn.
Example
The concrete cores of the World Trade Center towers in New York (1973) acted as shear walls, providing lateral stability to the 110-storey structures.