In this study, the effectiveness of the Eurocode provisions associated with the design of ductile R/C walls is evaluated. For a design to be successful, the provided ductility must be greater than or equal to the requirement. While the Eurocode 8 (EN 1998-1) explicitly specifies the local (curvature) ductility requirement, the same is not true for the provided ductility. Undoubtedly, the most accurate procedure to establish the latter is to perform an inelastic section analysis. However, since

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... uch an analysis cannot be implemented by hand calculations, the code has created an array of provisions to ensure that adequate ductility will be supplied. The main issue, though, associated with this approach, is that at the end of the design process there is no actual verification that the provided ductility exceeds the requirement. To provide a definitive answer, as to whether the code provisions are conservative, 3060 typical wall cases designed in accordance with the code requirements were analyzed inelastically. At first, the simplified design approach adopted by current engineering practice, which sets the boundary element length of the wall equal to its minimum value, is evaluated. Furthermore, the influence of the selected concrete class to the provided ductility is also examined. Afterwards, the evaluation process progresses by setting the boundary element length so that the code defined ultimate strain profile is satisfied. Along the process, the directional variation of the provided ductility is also discussed