A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY ON PARAMETERS AFFECTING STIFFNESS OF SHEAR WALL-FRAME BUILDINGS UNDER LATERAL LOADS By NAMI ROKHGAR A Thesis submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Graduate Program in Civil and Environmental Engineering Written under the direction of Dr. Husam S. Najm And approved by ________________________ ________________________ ________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey May 2014