• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.19-26
• /
• 2019

The masonry infill walls are one of the most popular components that are used for dividing and arranging spaces in building construction. In spite of the fact that the masonry infills have many advantages, the system needs to be used with caution when the earthquake load is to be considered. The infills tend to develop diagonal compression struts during earthquake and increase the demand in surrounding RC frames. If there are openings in the infill walls, the loading path gets even complicated and the engineering judgements are required for designing the system. In this study, a masonry infill system was investigated through finite element analysis (FEA) and the results were compared with the current design standard, ASCE 41. It is noted that the equivalent width of the compression strut estimated by ASCE 41 could be 32% less than that using detailed FEA. The global load resisting capacity was also estimated by 28% less when ASCE 41 was used compare to the FEA case. Rather than using expensive FEA, the adapting ASCE 41 for the analysis and design of the masonry infills with openings would provide a good estimation by about 25% conservatively.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
• /
• 2005.11a
• /
• pp.129-132
• /
• 2005

The primary purpose of this investigation is to find out the shear behavior and the shear capacity of RC bare frames, brick-infilled RC frames, and damper-retrofitted RC frames and to evaluate the average shear strength of brick--infill wall. The main variables art the absence of brick infill wall and steel plate slit damper. The test results show that the shear capacity of specimen IF-DR is 2.8 times as high as that of the specimen BF and it presents the fact that the retrofitting effect and the possibility of RC frame reuse with changing the slit damper is verified. And the average shear strength of the brick infill wall is figured to be at $5.0 kgf/cm^2$.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.83-96
• /
• 2020

The main structural elements of historical masonry arch bridges are arches, spandrel walls, piers and foundations. The most vulnerable structural elements of masonry arch bridges under transverse seismic loads, particularly in the case of out-of-plane actions, are spandrel wall. The vulnerability of spandrel walls under transverse loads increases with the increasing of their length and height. This paper computationally investigates the out-of-plane nonlinear seismic response of spandrel walls of long-span and high masonry stone arch bridges. The Malabadi Bridge with a main arch span of 40.86m and rise of 23.45m built in 1147 in Diyarbakır, Turkey, is selected as an example. The Concrete Damage Plasticity (CDP) material model adjusted to masonry structures, and cohesive interface interaction between the infill and the spandrel walls and the arch are considered in the 3D finite element model of the selected bridge. Firstly, mode shapes with and without cohesive interfaces are evaluated, and then out-of-plane seismic failure responses of the spandrel walls with and without the cohesive interfaces are determined and compared with respect to the displacements, strains and stresses.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.257-279
• /
• 2015

The primary objective of this study is to summarize results from previous experimental tests on laboratory specimens of RC/steel frames with masonry infills, in order to develop fragility functions that permit the estimation of damage in typical non-structural components of RC frame buildings, as a function of attained peak interstory drift. The secondary objective is to derive loss functions for such non-structural components, which provide information on the probability of experiencing a certain level of monetary loss when a given damage state is attained. Fragility curves and loss function developed in this study can be directly used within the FEMA P-58 framework for the seismic performance assessment of RC frame buildings with masonry infills.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.70 no.4
• /
• pp.421-429
• /
• 2019

This paper presents an analytical model for the estimation of initial lateral stiffness of steel moment resisting frames with masonry infills. However, rather than focusing on the single bay-single storey substructure, the developed model attempts to estimate the global stiffness of multi-storey and multi-bay frames, using an assembly of equivalent springs and taking into account the shape of the lateral loading pattern. The contribution from each infilled frame panel is included as an individual spring, whose properties are determined on the basis of established diagonal strut macro-modeling approaches from the literature. The proposed model is evaluated parametrically against numerical results from frame analyses, with varying number of frame stories, infill openings, masonry thickness and modulus of elasticity. The performance of the model is evaluated and found quite satisfactory.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.30 no.5
• /
• pp.443-456
• /
• 2019

Although numerous researchers demonstrated the significant difference in performance between the various beam-to-column connection types, most of the previous studies in the area of infilled steel frames focused on the behaviour of frames with welded connections. Therefore, there is a need for conducting studies on infilled steel frames with other common connection types (extended endplate with and without rib stiffeners, flush endplate and shear connections). In this paper, firstly, a two-dimensional finite-element model simulating the cyclic response of infilled steel frames was presented. The infill-frame interaction, as well as the interactions between connections' components, were properly modelled. Using the previously-validated model, a parametric study on infilled steel frames with five different beam-to-column connection types, under cyclic loading, was carried out. Several parameters, including infill material, fracture energy of masonry and infill thickness, were investigated. The results showed that the infilled frames with welded connections had the highest initial stiffness and load-carrying capacity. However, the infilled frames with extended endplate connections (without rib stiffeners) showed the greatest energy dissipation capacity and about 96% of the load-carrying capacity of frames with welded connections which indicates that this type of connection could have the best performance among the studied connection types. Finally, a simplified analytical model for estimating the stiffness and strength of infilled steel frames (with different beam-to-column connection types) subjected to lateral cyclic loading, was suggested.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.71-82
• /
• 2019

Most school buildings consist of reinforced concrete (RC) moment frames with masonry infills. The longitudinal direction frames of those school buildings are relatively weak due to the short-column effects caused by the partial masonry infills and need to be evaluated carefully. In 'Manual for Seismic Performance Evaluation and Retrofit of School Facilities' published in 2018, response modification factor of 2.5 is applied to non-seismic RC moment frames with partial masonry infills, but sufficient verification of the factor has not been reported yet. Therefore, this study conducted seismic performance evaluation of planar RC moment frames with partial masonry infills in accordance with both linear analysis and nonlinear static analysis procedures presented in the manual. The evaluation results from the different procedures are compared in terms of assessed performance levels and number of members not meeting target performance objectives. Finally, appropriate response modification factors are proposed with respect to a shear-controlled column ratio.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.437-449
• /
• 2020

It is quite apparent that engineering concerns related to the influence of masonry infills on seismic behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) structures is likely to remain relevant in the long term, as infill walls maintain their functionalities in construction practice. Within this framework, the present paper mainly deals with the issue in terms of modal expansion of effective earthquake forces and the resultant modal responses. An adequate determination of spatial distribution of effective earthquake forces over the height of the building is highly essential for both seismic analysis and design. The possible influence of infill walls is investigated by means of modal analyses of two-, three-, and four-bay RC frames with a number of stories ranging from 3 to 8. Both uniformly and non-uniformly infilled frames are considered in numerical analyses, where infill walls are simulated by adopting the model of equivalent compression strut. Consequently, spatial distribution of effective earthquake forces, modal static base shear force response of frames, modal responses of story shears from external excitation vector and lateral floor displacements are obtained. It is found that, infill walls and their arrangement over the height of the frame structure affect the spatial distribution of modal inertia forces, as well as the considered response quantities. Moreover, the amount of influence varies in stories, but is not very dependent to bay number of frames.

• Coupled systems mechanics
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.169-184
• /
• 2019

This research work presents a study that aims to assess the dynamic structural behaviour and also investigate the human comfort levels of a reinforced concrete building, when subjected to nondeterministic wind dynamic loadings, considering the effect of masonry infills on the global stiffness of the structural model. In general, the masonry fills most of the empty areas within the structural frames of the buildings. Although these masonry infills present structural stiffness, the common practice of engineers is to adopt them as static loads, disregarding the effect of the masonry infills on the global stiffness of the structural system. This way, in this study a numerical model based on sixteen-storey reinforced concrete building with 48 m high and dimensions of $14.20m{\times}15m$ was analysed. This way, static, modal and dynamic analyses were carried out in order to simulate the structural model based on two different strategies: no masonry infills and masonry infills simulated by shell finite elements. In this investigation, the wind action is considered as a nondeterministic process with unstable properties and also random characteristics. The fluctuating parcel of the wind is decomposed into a finite number of harmonic functions proportional to the structure resonant frequency with phase angles randomly determined. The nondeterministic dynamic analysis clearly demonstrates the relevance of a more realistic numerical modelling of the masonry infills, due to the modifications on the global structural stiffness of the building. The maximum displacements and peak accelerations values were reduced when the effect of the masonry infills (structural stiffness) were considered in the dynamic analysis. Finally, it can be concluded that the human comfort evaluation of the sixteen-storey reinforced concrete building can be altered in a favourable way to design.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.45-69
• /
• 2014

The 2009 L'Aquila, Italy earthquake shook a high density area causing a wide spectrum of damage to reinforced concrete with infill buildings, one of the most common building types used in Italy. The earthquake has proven to be a "full-scale" laboratory to further understand building performance. This paper presents the first results of a joint research effort between the University of Bologna and Degenkolb Engineers, aimed at investigating the seismic behavior of an infilled frame building that collapsed during the earthquake. State-of-the-practice techniques were implemented as a way to determine the reliability of these modeling techniques in anticipating the observed building performance. The main results indicate that: (i) the state-of-the-practice techniques are able to predict the observed behavior of the buildings; (ii) the masonry infills have a great influence on the behavior of the building in terms of stiffness, strength and global ductility.