Effects of podium interference on shear force distributions in tower walls supporting tall buildings

High rise constructions featuring a podium surrounding tower walls are often favoured for the versatile functionality of the building. It is shown in this paper that the podium can impose significant differential restraint on coupled tower walls. Incompatible tower wall displacements under lateral loads were found to be the main contributor to the generation of in-plane strutting forces in floors above and below the podium-tower interface level. Shear force localisations in the interior tower wall immediately above the interface was found to be the direct consequence of these actions. Key parameters contributing to this detrimental shear force localisation in a tower wall were analysed by way of parameter studies on representative models of the building and sub-assemblages. It is revealed that the in-plane rigid diaphragm assumption commonly adopted in practice can significantly suppress compatibility forces generated within the building floor leading to unconservative design of the tower walls. Elaborate nonlinear model has been examined to showcase the consequences of understating the shear demands on these walls.