Mid-rise Buildings Research Articles

Lateral performance of cold-formed steel framed shear walls using slitted sheathing with stiffeners

Cold-formed steel (CFS) framed shear walls with steel sheathing are promising lateral-force-resisting members of mid-rise buildings in seismic regions. Previous studies have demonstrated that steel sheathed CFS framed shear walls have high shear capacity but some shortcomings, such as the low ductility caused by the premature damage of the frame and the shear buckling of the sheathing. This paper presents an experimental study on a novel type of CFS framed shear wall with slitted steel sheathing (CFS-SSWs), which uses longitudinal slits to change the failure mode of the sheathing so that the ductility of the wall can be improved; Meanwhile, stiffeners are utilized to enhance the out-of-plane stability of the slitted sheathing and the integrity of the wall. Six full-scale CFS-SSW specimens were tested under monotonic and cyclic lateral loading. Three types of stiffening approaches (Type I, Type II and Type III) were adopted for the walls. Test results were analysed to investigate lateral performances of walls under different stiffener arrangements, including failure modes, load-displacement hysteresis curves, backbone curves, stiffness and strength degradation, and energy dissipation capacity. The measured strengths of the walls in the tests were assessed using theoretical indexes. It is found that peak loads and energy dissipation capacity of stiffened walls are noticeably higher than those of the unstiffened wall. Type II and Type III are effective stiffening approaches that could mitigate the buckling of the slitted sheathing and enable the links between the slits to reach the full plastic strength. By connecting the stiffeners and studs through stiffener connectors, Type III has the most significant enhancement on the stiffness, strength and ductility of the wall.

Dynamic responses of multi-story structural systems with separated gravity and lateral resisting systems under seismic action considering connection semi-rigidity effects

This paper investigates the dynamic behaviour of an innovative structural system with separated gravity and lateral resisting systems (SGLR system), which is proposed for the prefabricated structures in multi-story buildings by enhancing the standardization of beams, under earthquake excitation. The seismic performance of SGLR system is benchmarked against the conventional rigid frame system (RF system) designed with the same maximum inter-story drift ratios, and the influences of connection semi-rigidity on the dynamic responses of SGLR system are focused on. Numerical models are built using the self-developed fiber beam-column elements for composite frames, beam elements for semi-rigid connections and multi-layer shell elements for shear walls based on a six-story prototype structure. The modal analysis indicates that the natural vibration periods of SGLR system are smaller than those of RF system and the connection semi-rigidity will further significantly decrease the periods for the first three orders. Nonlinear time history analysis is conducted under eight sets of ground motions at two different levels in two horizontal directions. The shear walls in SGLR system bear the majority of seismic action with damage concentrated in the bottom. The connection semi-rigidity will decrease the lateral deformation and increase the involvement of the frame part in the lateral resisting mechanism of SGLR system, which can be more significant when the semi-rigidity is higher. SGLR system exhibits better control of inter-story drift ratios considering connection semi-rigidity in low-rise buildings and higher economic efficiency in mid-rise buildings.

Evaluation of Soil Structure Interaction Effects on Seismic Response of RC Framed Buildings Using Simplified Method

In the current practice for the design of the building structure is done by considering the footing as fixed based. The mid-rise buildings having variation in storey height from 3- to 10-storey were selected for the research. In this research, analysis was done to study into the interaction between the seismic response of RC-framed buildings and the soil-structure for various soil types. To study the linear responses of the structures, the model was developed in FEM software SAP2000. The underneath soil was modelled by using direct method, where the soil is considered as solid element. The considered depth of soil was considered 30 m and the viscous spring dashpot were applied to avoid the reflection of seismic waves in soil medium along the effective horizontal soil boundaries. The seismic response variables such as maximum lateral deflection, inter-storey drift and fundamental time periods have been studied. SSI amplified the lateral deflection, inter-storey drift and time period of structure shifting the performance level from life safety to near collapse level. Fundamental time period of the first mode was increased by 23 % for very soft soil. The maximum lateral deflection of 10-storey building for very soft soil was amplified up to 282 % for Kobe and the performance level was shifted from life safety (1.5 %) to collapse level for all the considered model for soil type D . The performance level of structure was checked against the different soil types on varying storey height and finally a simplified method has been proposed to incorporate the effects of SSI in fixed base structures.

Sensitivity analysis of the impact of environmental product declaration values on whole life carbon assessment: A case study using expanded polystyrene insulation for the retrofit of a building in Turkiye

Until recently, reducing the energy required to service a building (the operational energy) was the main aim of controlling carbon emissions from the built environment. It is now recognised that the energy required to make a building (the embodied energy) also has a crucial role in creating a net zero carbon future. The methodologies for quantifying embodied carbon are less developed than those for operational carbon, and more research is required to refine the embodied carbon metrics used when a building’s whole-life carbon emissions are calculated in a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). One such metric is the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), a document which can be used in different countries to quantify a product's environmental performance. EPDs are crucial data for conducting an LCA study of a building. However, despite recent efforts to standardise them, there are still inconsistencies between EPDs produced by different countries or manufacturers, even for materials with similar thermal and physical properties. This study considered some of the reasons for variations in EPDs for one product type, expanded polystyrene insulation (EPS). Factors such as (i) the LCA databases and software generators used for the EPDs, (ii) material mixes and manufacturing methods, (iii) country energy production mixes, and (iv) transportation distance from material source to the factory were considered in the analysis. As a case study, this paper examined the effects of selecting different EPDs for expanded polystyrene insulation on the final LCA results from the retrofit of a mid-rise residential building in Turkiye. Differences in EPDs demonstrated a fourfold difference between the highest and lowest upfront carbon impact results of building retrofit. This size of discrepancy indicates the need to choose the most appropriate EPD for a building/location when performing an LCA. Practical Applications Selecting an EPD when conducting an LCA for a new building or retrofit is generally left to the assessor’s judgment and knowledge, which varies greatly depending on the assessor’s background, especially in the construction sector. This study suggests an informed decision-making method over an example of EPS insulation material when the EPD options were none or limited to building locations like Turkiye.

Influence of Cross-Laminated Timber Floors and Their Connections on the Robustness of Mass-Timber Building: A Case Study on a Midrise Building

Influence of Cross-Laminated Timber Floors and Their Connections on the Robustness of Mass-Timber Building: A Case Study on a Midrise Building

Assessment of wind-driven rain (WDR) on buildings in an urban area: comparison of different CFD frameworks

The study of Wind-Driven Rain (WDR) loading on building facades is essential to design more sustainable and climate-resilient buildings, as well as to prevent further damage to old and historical buildings. Both WDR loading on buildings and façade responses to impinging raindrops have been studied previously but results for such a multi-parameter problem are not generally conclusive. Thus, the relevant provisions of ISO semi-empirical model cannot be applied with confidence for complex building configurations, such as those in urban areas since the WDR prediction can be more than twice that of the experimental data. In this paper, the Eulerian Multiphase (ME) technique is coupled with the RANS model to simulate the WDR loading on a six-story building under steady rainfall event conditions. Wind and WDR results are compared with the available wind-tunnel and on-site field measurement results, respectively. The field measurements were carried out on a six-story mid-rise residential building, located in Vancouver, Canada. The results show that the Euler-Euler framework (RANS-EM) predicts wind and WDR in such an urban area configuration more rapidly and accurately compared to the more traditional Euler-Lagrange framework (RANS-LPT) for both stand-alone and urban area configurations.

Effect of boundary element detailing on the seismic performance of reinforced concrete masonry shear walls

Laboratory tests demonstrated that reinforced masonry shear walls (RMSWs) can provide sufficient strength and ductility to be considered an efficient seismic force resisting system (SFRS) for mid-rise buildings. The ductility and overall seismic performance of shear walls were increased by providing confinement to the end zones of the walls to form boundary elements (BEs)., which enhanced the ultimate masonry compressive strain and curvature ductility of the walls. Regular stretcher blocks are commonly used in the construction of masonry boundary elements; however, they impose some constraints due to their geometrical characteristics. This study investigated the construction and testing of three half scale specimens of reinforced masonry shear walls with boundary elements (RMSWs+BEs) that were characterized by flexural dominance under reversed cyclic moment and lateral loading. In the lower story panel of a 12-story RMSW building, these walls constitute the plastic hinge zone, which is represented by a plastic hinge wall. In this study, C-shaped masonry units were used instead of stretcher units to construct BEs with different sizes and vertical reinforcement ratios. The findings of this work revealed that employing C-shaped masonry units to construct the BEs was effective in overcoming the construction limits imposed by stretcher units. Additionally, the results of this study demonstrated that when RMSWs+BEs are subjected to quasi-static reversed cyclic loading, they are capable of providing a high level of ductility with minimal loss of strength.

Customary light-gauge steel framing construction with flat strap bracing: seismicity limits for low to mid-rise buildings in Europe

AbstractOrdinary (customary) light gauge steel framing is a convenient construction technology; however, given the studs low axial capacity, it has been considered mainly for low-rise buildings in low seismicity regions. This paper investigates the boundaries of application of this type of steel framing (in moderate and high seismicity areas) by designing the structures of three representative 5, 7 and 10-storey buildings in order to examine their feasibility. The necessity of using built-up columns consisting of two or more sections is investigated. The axial capacity of studs is estimated by code-type analyses. The critical buckling stress is determined with well-known closed-form expressions; as they do not contemplate the flexibility of the screwed connections (in built-up sections), the obtained results are complemented with those of the finite strip method and generalized beam theory formulations.

Response- and probability-based evaluation of spectrally matched ground motion selection strategies for bi-directional dynamic analysis of low- to mid-rise RC buildings

In this study, the effect of different strategies which consider various levels of constraints for spectrally matched ground motion (GM) selection on seismic responses of the buildings was evaluated. For this, six different three-dimensional buildings and three different local soil classes were considered. Various GM record sets were used for each strategy and local soil class pair to perform bi-directional nonlinear dynamic analyses of the buildings and maximum global and maximum inter-story drift ratio demands were obtained. To evaluate the efficiency of proposed strategies, the mean and dispersion of the demands were investigated. Then, the differences among the means of the seismic demands obtained for the strategies were evaluated using the analysis of variance method. Moreover, probability curves of the demands were constructed and compared. The results indicate that i) the mean of the demands generally used for code-based performance assessment can be estimated more consistently by the proposed strategies; ii) the supplemental constraints about spectral matching allow to control the dispersion of the spectral acceleration values of selected GMs and hence the dispersion of the demands; iii) using the appropriate one of the proposed strategies, GMs with desired dispersion of spectral accelerations can be acquired for probability-based performance assessment.

A hybrid clustering-based type-2 adaptive neuro-fuzzy forecasting model for smart control systems

The practical applicability of smart control systems suffers from the existence of uncertainty in the physical parameters, sensor measurements and external excitations. Effective methods and its ease of implementation are required in the real-time active control strategies. To this end, in this research, we introduce an overlapping clusters and Multilayer Extreme Learning Machine (ML-ELM)-aided interval type-2 Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy inference system for vibration mitigation of smart structures. The combined Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) and imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) with respect to degree of fuzzy overlap between clusters was utilized for characterizing the upper and lower membership functions forming the antecedent part. Furthermore, indeterminacy was modeled as footprint of uncertainty (FOU) and automatically formed based on statistical characteristics of soft clusters. The consequent parameters were adjusted by hybridization of ML-ELM and overlapping clusters, then the adaptivity was guaranteed. The predictive accuracy and generalization capability of the proposed method were demonstrated over the estimation of active control effort. Finally, to prove the practicability of the implemented framework, it was applied to four high-rise, mid-rise and low-rise benchmark building structures equipped with active mass damper (AMD), active tendon and active bracing system (ABS). The obtained results demonstrated the higher predictive accuracy and generalization ability of the presented data-driven control scheme compared to the other standard technical machine learning strategies. This practical guideline is easy to implement and automates control engineering tasks in real-time applications, solving one of the most challenging aspects of smart control systems.

Developing a multi-objective optimization model for improving building's environmental performance over the whole design process

This study is built upon two previous articles which focus on identifying the key design variables affecting the life-cycle environmental impacts in each design stage of the building design process. This research aims to investigate the trade-offs between embodied and operational impacts and explore potential reduction in the total environmental impacts of a building by varying the identified design variables in each stage of the design process. A multi-objective optimization model based on BIM and LCA integration has been developed to find out the design solution with the optimal trade-offs between the embodied and operational impacts and the option with the minimal environmental impacts. Applying the proposed model to a mid-rise residential building, the results showed that the design process has the potential to lower the environmental impacts of the building by approximately 47.6 %. Moreover, the potential for reducing carbon emissions is greater in the early design stages, with the potential to lower emissions by up to 32.5 %, compared to the lower emission reduction potential of approximately 7.5 % in the detailed and construction design stages. Furthermore, solutions aimed at addressing the trade-off between embodied and operational impacts were identified in each design stage. The study provides an insight into the understanding of how building design can be optimized to mitigate environmental impacts.

Comparison of building energy performance in three urban sites using field measurements and modelling in Kayseri, Turkiye

Despite the fact that the interrelationships between urban microclimates and energy demand have been recognised, there are not many processes that combine microclimatic boundary conditions to estimate energy consumption in parametric morphological investigations. Therefore, this paper will demonstrate a simple step-by-step methodology to incorporate the effect of urban microclimate on building cooling energy demand in semi-arid climatic areas. In this study, the combination of ENVI-met, Urban Weather Generator (UWG) and Rhino grasshopper are used to investigate the connection between microclimate and energy in the climatic environment of Kayseri. This coupling’s potential is investigated across compact high-rise, midrise and low-rise buildings, focusing on the cooling requirement on the hottest days. The comparative study shows how and to what extent urban geometry, building height in this case, contributes to modifying the magnitude of microclimate impact on building cooling performance.

Experimental investigation on seismic performance of cold-formed steel strap-braced stud walls under lateral cyclic and vertical loading

Cold-formed steel (CFS) construction offers several benefits over traditional construction, including being lightweight, sustainable, recyclable, quick to build, insect and rot-resistant, and suitable for computer-aided design and manufacture. Despite extensive research on CFS elements, there are still gaps in our understanding of the behaviour of CFS structural systems, particularly their response to severe earthquake events. This experimental program aims to provide a better understanding on the seismic behaviour of strap-braced stud-walls as a lateral force resisting system for residential medium-rise buildings. An innovative test rig is developed that is capable of applying a constant vertical load during lateral cyclic testing, replicating the loading conditions expected during an earthquake event in such cases. For the first time, seven full-scale tests are conducted on CFS walls under vertical and horizontal loading using standard sections in New Zealand. The vertical capacity, lateral stiffness, ultimate strength, ductility, and failure mechanisms of the specimens are investigated. Subsequently, a modified detailing is suggested, which allows CFS walls to exhibit considerably better seismic behaviour compared to the systems with conventional detailing. It is shown that by adopting the modified detailing, CFS walls exhibit an ideal elastic-plastic curve with negligible degradation in successive cycles and a high ductility factor exceeding 5. The results of this study should prove useful for more efficient design of CFS strap-braced stud walls for mid-rise buildings.

Identifying Major Diurnal Patterns and Drivers of Surface Urban Heat Island Intensities across Local Climate Zones

Deepening the understanding of diurnal characteristics and driving mechanisms of surface urban heat islands (SUHIs) across different local climate zones (LCZs) and time scales is of great significance for guiding urban surface heat mitigation. However, a comprehensive investigation of SUHIs from the diurnal, local, multi-seasonal, and interactive perspectives remains a large gap. Here, we generalized major diurnal patterns of LCZ-based SUHI intensities (SUHIIs) throughout 2020 over the urban area of Beijing, China, based on diurnal temperature cycle modeling, block-level LCZ mapping, and hierarchical clustering. A geographical detector was then employed to explore the individual and interactive impacts of 10 morphological, socioeconomic, and meteorological factors on the multi-temporal spatial differentiations of SUHIIs. Results indicate six prevalent diurnal SUHII patterns with distinct features among built LCZ types. LCZs 4 and 5 (open high- and mid-rise buildings) predominantly display patterns one, two, and five, characterized by an afternoon increase and persistently higher values during the night. Conversely, LCZs 6, 8, and 9 (open, large, and sparsely built low-rise buildings) mainly exhibit patterns three, four, and six, with a decrease in SUHII during the afternoon and lower intensities at night. The maximum/minimum SUHIIs occur in the afternoon–evening/morning for patterns 1–3 but in the morning/afternoon for patterns 5–6. In all four seasons, the enhanced vegetation index (EVI) and gross domestic product (GDP) have the top two individual effects for daytime spatial differentiations of SUHIIs, while the air temperature (TEM) has the largest explanatory power for nighttime differentiations of SUHIIs. All factor interactions are categorized as two-factor or nonlinear enhancements, where nighttime interactions exhibit notably greater explanatory powers than daytime ones. The strongest interactions are EVI ∩ GDP (q = 0.80) during the day and TEM ∩ EVI (q = 0.86) at night. The findings of this study contribute to an improved interpretation of the diurnal continuous dynamics of local SUHIIs in response to various environmental conditions.

Evaluation of an Existing Validated Emirati House versus a New Parametric Design Based on the Local Social Environment through the Application of Advanced Tools

Al Ain is the second-largest city in the Abu Dhabi Emirate, and the population of Al Ain has been growing rapidly for the last 50 years. The residential units in Al Ain are arranged using different concepts in relation to household social and economic behaviors. While Al Ain city has mostly low-rise and mid-rise residential buildings, the local population tends to live in traditional low-rise villas. The governmental statistics show a high ratio of energy consumption in the form of electricity for cooling loads, and it is estimated to increase with the rapid growth of the population. In this context, it is important to investigate different strategies to control the energy consumption of residential buildings. The purpose of this study was to assess the energy usage and demand of an existing villa in Al Ain and see how a newer design approach can help to reduce the annual energy consumption of households. The newer design option is based on a parametric (application of a parametric façade) approach whilst taking sustainable design approaches. The newer design options are compared to the existing villa and a traditional extension villa attached to the existing villa in terms of annual electricity consumption. The process of design and energy modeling of all cases used the Estidama baseline standards for technical and construction specifications. The process started with selecting an existing six-bedroom villa in Al Ain. Moreover, the selected villa had a planned extension to be constructed in the future. Then, an annual energy model of the existing villa was created in Rhinoceros 7.0 with the Grasshopper 3D plug-in. The energy results were validated against the real energy bills of the villa. Once the energy model was validated, the newer options of the design were modeled, and the projected energy consumption was compared with the base case results to see how energy-efficient the newer model would be. The research shows that it is possible to save up to 60% of electricity annually by carefully selecting a sustainable design in the early stages.

Urban Design Impact on Local Climate and its Consequences on Building Energy Demand in Morocco

Urban design has a profound impact on the local climate, which can result in changes in temperature distribution and energy demand. The Urban Heat Island (UHI), a well-documented issue where cities typically experience higher temperatures than the cooler rural surroundings that envelop them, is closely tied to urban design and its geometrical features. This increase in temperature can lead to increased energy consumption, particularly for air conditioning, as populations strive to maintain thermal comfort. Within this framework, this paper seeks to advance our comprehension of the influence of urban design on the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect and building energy requirements. It makes a valuable contribution to the expanding body of research in this field, offering insightful guidance on optimal urban design strategies tailored to diverse climate zones in Morocco. To achieve these goals, we explore multiple urban design scenarios incorporating variations in building heights, street aspect ratios, building layout configurations, and street orientations. We employ the Urban Weather Generator and EnergyPlus for our analysis, with the former enabling the generation of synthetic weather data that accounts for the UHI effect in urban contexts, and the latter facilitating building energy simulations. The simulation results reveal a wide-ranging hourly variation in Urban Heat Island (UHI) intensity, spanning from 11°C to -5°C across the cities under study. Among these cities, Ifrane, Marrakesh, and Fes exhibit the highest average annual UHI intensity. Incorporating UHI considerations into energy simulations has yielded notable outcomes. Low-rise buildings experience a reduction in total energy requirements, while mid-rise and high-rise buildings exhibit an increase. For instance, adopting an urban design scenario featuring 20-story buildings and a street aspect ratio of 0.33 led to a rise in total energy demands between 8% and 19%. Furthermore, the street aspect ratio (H/W) emerges as the primary driver of UHI, whereas street orientation and building layout exert the most substantial influence on building energy requirements. Inefficient building layouts result in a significant increase in building energy needs, ranging from 106% to 121%, while less energy-efficient street orientations lead to total energy needs escalating by 28% to 76%.

A Mathematical Approach for Predicting Sufficient Separation Gap between Adjacent Buildings to Avoid Earthquake-Induced Pounding

Studies on earthquake-related damage underscore that buildings are vulnerable to significant harm or even collapse during moderate to strong ground motions. Of particular concern is seismic-induced pounding, observed in numerous past and recent earthquakes, often resulting from inadequate separation gaps between neighboring structures. This study conducted an experimental and numerical investigation to develop a mathematical equation to calculate a sufficient separation gap in order to avoid the collision between adjacent mid-rise steel-frame buildings during seismic excitation. In this study, the coupled configuration of 15-storey & 10-storey, 15-storey & 5-storey, and 10-storey & 5-storey steel frame structures was considered in the investigation. The investigation concluded with a large number of data outputs. The outputs were used to predict structural behavior during earthquakes. The obtained data were categorized into three main categories according to the earthquake's Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) levels. Also, the derived equations were divided into three different equations to estimate the required seismic gap between neighboring buildings accordingly. The derived equations are distilled to empower engineers to rigorously evaluate non-irregular mid-rise steel frame buildings. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2023-09-10-02 Full Text: PDF

Optimal allocation of local climate zones based on heat vulnerability perspective

Global climate change presents considerable heating risks to cities, necessitating the assessment of heat vulnerability characteristics in urban areas for the advancement of human settlements and socioeconomic progress. Nevertheless, there has been a lack of extensive research regarding heat vulnerability when considering local climate zones (LCZs). In this study, we utilized data from multiple sources to construct a model for evaluating heat vulnerability along three dimensions: Exposure, Sensitivity, and Adaptability. We analyzed the spatial characteristics of heat vulnerability in the LCZs and employed a linear weighted multi-objective optimization method to reconfigure the LCZs and mitigate the Urban Heat Vulnerability Index (HVI). The findings revealed that (1) The spatial characteristics of exposure and sensitivity were similar, with high values observed in the city center and low values at the periphery. Adaptability exhibited a high–low–high pattern from the center to the edge due to the combined influence of the economy and natural factors. (2) The HVI of the built environment (building LCZ) surpassed that of the natural environment (natural LCZ) within the research area. Specifically, compact high-rise buildings (LCZ1) and compact midrise buildings (LCZ2) accounted for over 90% of the area with extremely high and high HVI values, necessitating immediate optimization efforts. (3) By considering the area and population size of the research area, we achieved an optimal heat vulnerability plan by increasing the areas of LCZ4 and LCZA while reducing the areas of LCZ8 and LCZ1, among others. Therefore, the overall HVI of the study area decreased from 49,034.67 to 41,772.37, representing a reduction of 14.81 %. This study presents an innovative approach to mitigating urban heat vulnerability, providing valuable planning references and scientific guidance to assist cities in addressing high-temperature risks.

Linear and Nonlinear Dynamic Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Building with V Shape Steel Bracing

In this study, the RC-MRCBFs were used with V braced frame. The core objective of this examination is to understand the earthquake behavior of the RC-MRCBFs in steel V braced frames. Response spectrum analysis (RSA) is used to understand the seismic performance of the steel braced and un-braced RC frames. Total 12 steel braced RC frames and 12 un-braced frames for all 4 story, 8story, 12 stories and 16 stories are studied and observed the seismic parameter such as fundamental time period (FTP), top story displacements, inter-story drift, base shear and story stiffness of the structures. After studying the parametric study of the 4 to 16 story buildings with a linear and nonlinear analysis tool it was observed that to get the effective braced frame with expected failure mechanism, ductility, the columns should be designed such that, they resist at least 50% base shear contributions. It is observed that using the steel V bracing in the low rise to mid-rise buildings, improves the seismic behaviors of the structures. The steel bracing reduces the maximum top story displacements, drift and time period of the building and increases the seismic base shear demand, stiffness of the structures. The result shows that as increasing the base shear contribution in the columns, the drift and displacement of the story increases and base shear decreases. Key Words: Response Spectrum Analysis, displacement, Maximum storey drift, Storey shear, Storey stiffness, braced frame, RC buildings.

Investigating the deformation characteristics of balloon-type CLT shearwall

Balloon-type cross-laminated timber (CLT) shearwalls represent a valuable alternative to traditional platform-type construction for use as lateral load resisting systems in mid-rise mass timber buildings. Limited information is available on the behaviour of balloon-type shearwalls, and the system is not included in design codes and standards. The research aims to investigate the lateral deformation contribution and kinematic behaviour of balloon-type CLT shearwall system. A simplified analytical model to establish the lateral displacement of shearwalls is presented and discussed. The methodology involves a validated finite element model, and the result of sensitivity analysis is used to develop the analytical model. The study revealed that the stiffness of hold-downs and vertical joints, and aspect ratio of panels and vertical loads are contributing factors influencing lateral stiffness. The proposed analytical model was verified against 45 cases implemented in numerical models yielding an average error in the prediction of top lateral displacement of less than 4.7%.