I have a shear wall that has section cuts failing right at the corners. When I look at the forces in the failing section the shear is 760 kips and then right next to it is a passing section cut with a shear force of 240 kips. This is a very large force jump. The story below has a similar section cut and has a shear of around 300 kips. How does RAM Concrete determine the force in the section cut. Which force is accurate to design additional reinforcement for?
We integrate the shell nodal forces to determine the total forces on a section. Very large force changes over a small distance can be a sign of a poor mesh. In your case it looks like one section is longer than the other too. A vertical section cut that passes through multiple stories or diaphragms is something to be careful with, as diaphragm forces are not directly considered.