Experimental investigation on in-plane seismic behavior of multistory opening masonry walls with two different failure modes

Aiming to examine different failure patterns in multistory URM walls, two 1/3 scaled three-story and three-bay URM models were designed for the quasi-static loading tests to contrastively investigate the failure processes and characteristics of the multistory URM walls. Two different failure responses were observed with special attention paid to the behavior of spandrel-failure mode. By evaluating the seismic performance and deformation behavior of two test walls, it is demonstrated that spandrels, that haven't been properly designed in some codes, are of great significance in the failure of entire URM walls. Additionally, compared with pier-failure mode, spandrel-failure for multistory URM building is more reasonable and advisable as its effectively participation in energy dissipation and its efficiently improvement on seismic capacity and deformation in the overall structure. Furthermore, the experimental results are beneficial to improve seismic design and optimize reinforcement method of URM buildings.