An analytical study is performed to evaluate the effect of shear wall area to floor area ratio on the seismic behavior of midrise RC structures. For this purpose, 24 midrise building models that have five and eight stories and shear wall ratios ranging between 0.51 and 2.17% in both directions are generated. Then, the behavior of these building models under earthquake loading is examined by carrying out nonlinear time history analyses. In the analyses, seven different ground motion records are

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... pplied to the building models, and the average of the obtained data is used in the evaluation of the seismic performance. Main parameters considered in this study that affect the overall seismic performance of the buildings are the roof and interstory drifts and the base shear responses. The analytical results indicate that at least 1.0% shear wall ratio should be provided in the design of midrise buildings to control the drift. In addition, when the shear wall ratio increases beyond 1.5%, it is observed that the improvement of the seismic performance is not as significant.