• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.241-264
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• 2013

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the progressive and rapid spread of reinforced concrete (RC) has led to the adoption of mixed masonry-RC solutions, such as the confined masonry. However, together with structures conceived with a definite role for earthquake behaviour, the spreading of RC technology has caused the birth of mixed solutions inspired more by functional aspects than by structural ones, such as: internal masonry walls replaced by RC frames, RC walls inserted to build staircases or raising made from RC frames. Usually, since these interventions rise from a spontaneous build-up, any capacity design or ductility concepts are neglected being designed only to bear vertical loads: thus, the vulnerability assessment of this class becomes crucial. To investigate the non-linear seismic response of these structures, suitable models and effective numerical tools are needed. Among the various modelling approaches proposed in the literature and codes, the authors focus their attention on the equivalent frame model. After a brief description of the adopted model and its numerical validation, the authors aim to point out some specific peculiarities of the seismic response of mixed masonry-RC structures and their repercussions on safety verification procedures (referring in particular way to the non-linear static ones). In particular, the results of non-linear static analyses performed parametrically to various configurations representative of different interventions are discussed.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Structure & Construction
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• v.34 no.11
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• pp.27-35
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of boundary RC frame(composed of one tie-beam and two tie-columns) on seismic performance of unreinforced masonry walls to suggest alternative way for seismic design of unreinforced masonry wall structures. Two test specimens are prepared, one is a typical unreinforced masonry wall and another is alternative unreinforced masonry wall with additional boundary RC frame. The structural experiments were carried out to evaluate the difference of seismic resistance performance between two test specimens with or without the boundary RC frames. From the test results, it was found that the failure mode of unreinforced masonry wall fundamentally changed from 'brittle' to 'ductile' by the installing of boundary RC frames. And, the maximum load and energy dissipation capacity of the test specimen with boundary RC frame was increased about 1.6~1.7 and 2~3 times respectively compared with a typical unreinforced masonry wall specimen.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.181-199
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• 2014

The infill walls, whose contribution to the earthquake resistance of a structure is generally ignored due to their limited lateral rigidities, constitute a part of the lateral load bearing system of an RC frame structure. A common method for improving the earthquake behavior of RC frame structures is increasing the contribution of the infill walls to the overall lateral rigidity by strengthening them through different techniques. The present study investigates the influence of externally bonded perforated steel plates on the load capacities, rigidities, and ductilities of hollow brick infill walls. For this purpose, a reference (unstrengthened) and twelve strengthened specimens were subjected to monotonic diagonal compression. The experiments indicated that the spacing of the bolts, connecting the plates to the wall, have a more profound effect on the behavior of a brick wall compared to the thickness of the strengthening plates. Furthermore, an increase in the plate thickness was shown to result in a considerable improvement in the behavior of the wall only if the plates are connected to the wall with closely-spaced bolts. This strengthening technique was found to increase the energy absorption capacities of the walls between 4 and 14 times the capacity of the reference wall. The strengthened walls reached ultimate loads 30-160% greater than the reference wall and all strengthened walls remained intact till the end of the test.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.875-878
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• 2008

This paper summarizes on the state-of-the-art research on the reinforced concrete (RC) walls for evaluating and predicting the performance of RC walls analytically and experimentally. A brief discussion of the research trends is presented to propose the further research direction of RC walls. In the paper, 102 papers published on the ACI, Engineering Structure, KCI journal, and AIK journal are collected and reviewed.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.211-226
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• 2004

A relatively simple multiple-vertical-line-element macro model has been incorporated into a standard computer code DRAIN-2D. It was used in blind predictions of seismic response of cantilever RC walls subjected to a series of consequent earthquakes on a shaking table. The model was able to predict predominantly flexural response with relative success. It was able to predict the stiffness and the strength of the pre-cracked specimen and time-history response of the highly nonlinear wall as well as to simulate the shift of the neutral axis and corresponding varying axial force in the cantilever wall. However, failing to identify the rupture of some brittle reinforcement in the third test, the model was not able to predict post-critical, near collapse behaviour during the subsequent response to two stronger earthquakes. The analysed macro model seems to be appropriate for global analyses of complex building structures with RC structural walls subjected to moderate/strong earthquakes. However, it cannot, by definition, be used in refined research analyses monitoring local behaviour in the post critical region.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.263-270
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• 2017

In this study, two geometrically identical multi-storey steel buildings with different lateral load resisting systems are structurally analyzed under same earthquake conditions and they are compared with respect to their construction costs of their structural systems. One of the systems is a steel structure with eccentrically steel braced frames. The other one is a RC wall-steel frame system, that is a steel framed structure in combination with a reinforced concrete core and shear walls of minimum thickness that the national code allows. As earthquake resisting systems, steel braced frames and reinforced concrete shear walls, for both cases are located on identical places in either building. Floors of both buildings will be of reinforced concrete slabs of same thickness resting on composite beams. The façades are assumed to be covered identically with light-weight aluminum cladding with insulation. Purpose of use for both buildings is an office building of eight stories. When two systems are structurally analyzed by FEM (finite element method) and dimensionally compared, the dual one comes up with almost 34% less cost of construction with respect to their structural systems. This in turn means that, by using a dual system in earthquake zones such as Turkey, for multi-storey steel buildings with RC floors, more economical solutions can be achieved. In addition, slender steel columns and beams will add to that and consequently more space in rooms is achieved.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.583-592
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• 2018

Today, buildings are exposed to the effects such as explosion and impact loads. Usually, explosion and impact loads that act on the buildings such as nuclear power plants, airports, defense industry and military facilities, can occur occasionally on the normal buildings because of some reasons like drop weight impacts, natural gas system explosions, and terrorist attacks. Therefore, it has become important to examine the behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) structures under impact loading. Development of computational mechanics has facilitated the modeling of such load conditions. In this study, three kinds of RC walls that have different geometric forms (square, ellipse, and circle) and used in guardhouses with same usage area were modeled with Abaqus finite element software. The three configurations were subjected to the same impact energy to determine the geometric form that gives the best behavior under the impact loading. As a result of the analyses, the transverse impact forces and failure modes of RC walls under impact loading were obtained. Circular formed (CF) reinforced concrete wall which has same impact resistance in each direction had more advantages. Nonetheless, in the case of the impact loading occurring in the major axis direction of the ellipse (EF-1), the elliptical formed reinforced concrete wall has higher impact resistance.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.69 no.6
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• pp.677-691
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• 2019

In recent years, interest is growing in the engineering community on the experimental assessment and the theoretical prediction of the out-of-plane (OOP) seismic response of unreinforced masonry (URM) infills, which are widespread in Reinforced Concrete (RC) buildings in Europe and in the Mediterranean area. In the literature, some mechanical-based models for the prediction of the entire OOP force-displacement response have been formulated and proposed. However, the small number of experimental tests currently available has not allowed, up to current times, a robust and reliable evaluation of the predictive capacity of such response models. To enrich the currently available experimental database, six pure OOP tests on URM infills in RC frames were carried out at the Department of Structures for Engineering and Architecture of the University of Naples Federico II. Test specimens were built with the same materials and were different only for the thickness of the infill walls and for the number of their edges mortared to the confining elements of the RC frames. In this paper, the results of these experimental tests are briefly recalled. The main aim of this study is comparing the experimental response of test specimens with the prediction of mechanical models presented in the literature, in order to assess their effectiveness and contribute to the definition of a robust and reliable model for the evaluation of the OOP seismic response of URM infill walls.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.81-88
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• 2022

The paper introduces an experimental program for the newly developed vertical joints between Precast Concrete (PC) walls to improve their in-plane shear capacity. Compared to the existing vertical joints, two types of vertical joints were developed by increasing the transverse reinforcement ratio and improving frictional force at the joint interface. A total of four specimens including the Reinforced Concrete (RC) wall and PC walls with developed vertical joints were designed and constructed. The constructed specimens were experimentally investigated through monotonic shear tests. The observed damage, load-deformation relationship, strain and strength are investigated and compared with the cases of RC wall specimen. Experimental results indicate that the maximum force and initial stiffness of the PC wall with proposed vertical joints were decreased by comparing with those of RC wall. However, the ultimate displacement increased by up to 217.30% compared to the RC wall specimen. In addition, brittle failure did not occurred and relatively few cracks and damages occurred.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.202-212
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• 2000

This study investigates the ductility capacity of slender-wide reinforced concrete walls under predominant flexural moment loading. The experimental work for this study aims to provide design guidelines for bar detailing in critical regions under compressive stress in particular in case of slender-wide RC walls. According to the experimental observation the Bernoulli hypothesis of linear strain distribution is no longer valid and the ultimate compressive strain of concrete is significantly reduced, It is postulated that the nonlinear strain distribution causes the concentrated compressive stressed region and hence the premature crushing failure at the toe of walls. The reduced ultimate strain and nonlinear strain distribution need transverse reinforcement for confinement and more realistic models for the strength and displacement estimation of slender-wide RC wall.