• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.483-489
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• 2008

Masonry infill walls are frequently used as interior partitions and exterior walls in low- or middlerise RC buildings In the structural design and assessment of structural behaviors of buildings, the infill walls are usually treated as non-structural elements and they are ignored in analytical models. In this study, seismic behaviors of RC frame with/without masonry infill walls were investigated. To this end, the infill walls were modeled as equivalent diagonal struts. Based on analytical results, it has been shown that masonry infill walls can increase the global strength and stiffness of a structure. Accordingly, inter-story drift ratio will be decreased but seismic forces applied to the structure were increased than design seismic load because natural period of the structure was decreased. It is also seen from the analytical results that the inelastic deformation of RC frame with soft story is concentrated on the first story columns and thus, partial damage may have possibility of collapse of system.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.157-174
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• 2020

The in-situ pushover test differs from the shake-table test because it is performed outdoors and thus its size is not restricted by space, which allows us to test a full-size building. However, to build a new full-size building for the test is not economical, consequently scholars around the world usually make scale structures or full-scale component units to be tested in the laboratory. However, if in-situ pushover tests can be performed on full-size structures, then the seismic behaviors of buildings during earthquakes can be grasped. In view of this, this study conducts two in-situ pushover tests of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings. One is a masonry-infilled RC building with openings (the openings ratio of masonry infill wall is between 24% and 51%) and the other is an RC building without masonry infill. These two in-situ pushover tests adopt obsolescent RC buildings, which will be demolished, to conduct experiment and successfully obtain seismic capacity curves of the buildings. The test results are available for the development or verification of a seismic evaluation model. This paper uses ASCE 41-17 as the main evaluation model and is accompanied by a simplified pushover analysis, which can predict the seismic capacity curves of low-rise buildings in Taiwan. The predicted maximum base shear values for masonry-infilled RC buildings with openings and for RC buildings without masonry infill are, respectively, 69.69% and 87.33% of the test values. The predicted initial stiffness values are 41.04% and 100.49% of the test values, respectively. It can be seen that the ASCE 41-17 evaluation model is reasonable for the RC building without masonry infill walls. In contrast, the analysis result for the masonry infilled RC building with openings is more conservative than the test value because the ASCE 41-17 evaluation model is limited to masonry infill walls with an openings ratio not exceeding 40%. This study suggests using ASCE 41-17's unreinforced masonry wall evaluation model to simulate a masonry infill wall with an openings ratio greater than 40%. After correction, the predicted maximum base shear values of the masonry infilled RC building with openings is 82.60% of the test values and the predicted initial stiffness value is 67.13% of the test value. Therefore, the proposed method in this study can predict the seismic behavior of a masonry infilled RC frame with large openings.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.13-22
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• 2010

Masonry infill walls are frequently used as interior partitions and exterior walls in low- or middle- rise RC buildings. In the design and assessment of buildings, the infill walls are usually treated as non-structural elements and they are ignored in analytical models because they are assumed to be beneficial to the structural responses. Therefore, their influences on the structural response are ignored. In the case of buildings constructed in the USA in highly seismic regions, infill walls have a lower strength and stiffness than the boundary frames or they are separated from the boundary frames. Thus, the previously mentioned assumptions may be reasonable. However, these systems are not usually employed in most other countries. Therefore, the differences in the seismic behaviors of RC buildings with/without masonry infill walls, which are ignored in structural design, need to be investigated. In this study, structural analyses were performed for a masonry infilled low-rise RC moment-resisting frame. The infill walls were modeled as equivalent diagonal struts. The seismic behaviors of the RC moment-resisting frame with/without masonry infill walls were evaluated. From the analytical results, masonry infill walls can increase the global strength and stiffness of a structure. Consequently, the interstory drift ratio will decrease but seismic forces applied to the structure will increase more than the design seismic load because the natural period of the structure decreases. Partial damage of the infill walls by the floor causes vertical irregularity of the strength and stiffness.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.137-147
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• 2022

This study investigated the seismic performance of reinforced concrete (RC) wall-slab frames with masonry infills. Four RC wall-slab frames with or without masonry infill were tested under cyclic loading. The RC frames were composed of in-plane and out-of-plane walls and top and bottom slabs. For masonry infill walls, cement bricks were stacked applying mortar paste only at the bed joints, and, at the top, a gap of 50 mm was intentionally left between the masonry wall and top RC slab. Both sides of the masonry walls were finished by applying ordinary or fiber-reinforced mortars. The tests showed that despite the gap on top of the masonry walls, the strength and stiffness of the infilled frames were significantly increased and were different depending on the direction of loading and the finishing mortars. During repeated loading, the masonry walls underwent horizontal and diagonal cracking and corner crushing/spalling, showing a rocking mode inside the RC wall-slab frame. Interestingly, this rocking mode delayed loss of strength, and as a result, the ductility of the infilled frames increased to the same level as the bare frame. The interaction of masonry infill and adjacent RC walls, depending on the direction of loading, was further investigated based on test observations.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.177-186
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• 2023

Reinforced concrete frames with a masonry infill panel is a structural typology frequently used worldwide. In seismic cases, the interaction between the masonry infill and the RC frames constitutes one of the most complex subjects in earthquake engineering. In this work, an enhancement of an existing numerical model is proposed to improve the estimation of lateral strength and stiffness of masonry-infilled frame structures and predict their probable failure modes. The proposed improvement is based on attributing corrective coefficients to the shear strength of each diagonal shear spring of the macro element, which simulates the masonry infill. The improved numerical model is validated by comparing the results with those of the original numerical model and with experimental results available in the literature. The enhanced macro element model can be used as a powerful, accessible tool for assessing the capacity and stiffness of masonry-infilled frame structures and predicting their probable failure modes.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.309-325
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• 2015

A convenient procedure for seismic retrofit of existing buildings is to use passive control methods, like using friction dampers in steel frames with bracing systems. In this method, reduction of seismic demand and increase of ductility generally improve seismic performance of the structures. Some of its advantages are development of a stable rectangular hysteresis loop and independence on environmental conditions such as temperature and loading rate. In addition to friction dampers, masonry-infill panels improve the seismic resistance of steel structures by increasing lateral strength and stiffness and reducing story drifts. In this study, the effect of masonry-infill panels on seismic performance of a three-span four-story steel frame with Pall friction dampers is investigated. The results show that friction dampers in the steel frame increase the ductility and decrease the drift (to less than 1%). The infill panels fulfill their function during the imposed drift and increase structural strength. It can be concluded that infill panels together with friction dampers, reduced structural dynamic response. These infill panels dissipated input earthquake energy from 4% to 10%, depending on their thickness.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.681-695
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• 2013

In 1999 Marmara and 2011 Van earthquakes in Turkey, majority of the existing buildings either sustained severe damage or collapsed. These buildings include masonry infill walls in both the interior and exterior R/C frames. The material of the masonry infill is the main variant, ranging from natural stones to bricks and blocks. It is demanding to design these buildings for satisfactory structural behavior. In general, masonry infill walls are considered by its weights not by interaction between walls and frames. In this study, R/C buildings with infill walls are considered in terms of structural behavior. Therefore, 5 and 8-story R/C buildings are regarded as the representative models in the analyses. The R/C representative buildings, both with and without infill walls were analyzed to determine the effects of structural behavior change. The differences in earthquake behavior of these representative buildings were investigated to determine the effects of infill walls leading structural capacity. First, pushover curves of the representative buildings were sketched. Aftermath, time history analyses were carried out to define the displacement demands. Finally, fragility analyses were performed. Throughout the fragility analyses, probabilistic seismic assessment for R/C building structures both with and without infill walls were provided. In this study, besides the deterministic assessment methodology, a probabilistic approach was followed to define structural effect of infill walls under seismic loads.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.195-204
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• 2017

The effects of plaster on the behavior of single-story single-bay masonry-infilled steel frames under in-plane base accelerations have been experimentally investigated by a shake-table. Tested structures were made in a 1/3 scale, with realistic material properties and construction methods. Steel frames with high and low flexural rigidity of beams and columns were considered. Each type of frame was tested with three variants of masonry: (i) non-plastered masonry; (ii) masonry infill with conventional plaster on both sides; and (iii) masonry infill with a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) net reinforced plaster on both sides. Masonry bricks were made of lightweight cellular concrete. Each frame was firstly successively exposed to horizontal base accelerations of an artificial accelerogram, and afterwards, to horizontal base accelerations of a real earthquake. Characteristic displacements, strains and cracks in the masonry were established for each applied excitation. It has been concluded that plaster strengthens the infill and prevents damages in it, which results in more favorable behavior and increased bearing capacity of plastered masonry-infilled frames compared to non-plastered masonry-infilled frames. The load-bearing contribution of the adopted PVC net in the plaster was not noticeable for the tested specimens, probably due to relative small cross section area of fibers in the net. Behavior of masonry-infilled steel frames significantly depends on frame stiffness. Strong frames have smaller displacements than weak frames, which reduces deformations and damages of an infill.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.227-241
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• 2020

An experimental study has been carried out to investigate the effect of beam to column connection rigidity on the behavior of infilled steel frames. Five half scale, single-story and single-bay specimens, including four infilled frames, as well as, one bare frame, were tested under in-plane lateral cyclic reversal loading. The connections of beam to column for bare frame as well as two infill specimens were rigid, whereas those of others were pinned. For each frame type, two different infill panels were considered: (1) masonry infill, (2) masonry infill strengthened with shotcrete. The experimental results show that the infilled frames with pinned connections have less stiffness, strength and potential of energy dissipation compared to those with rigid connections. Furthermore, the validity of analytical methods proposed in the literature was examined by comparing the experimental data with analytical ones. It is shown that the analytical methods overestimate the stiffness of infilled frame with pinned connections; however, the strength estimation of both infilled frames with rigid and pinned connections is acceptable.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.551-565
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• 2018

Experimental testing is considered the most realistic approach to obtain a detailed representation of the nonlinear behaviour of masonry-infilled reinforced concrete (RC) structures. Among other applications, these tests can be used to calibrate the properties of numerical models such as simplified macro-models (e.g., strut-type models) representing the masonry infill behaviour. Since the significant cost of experimental tests limits their widespread use, alternative approaches need to be established to obtain adequate data to validate the referred simplified models. The proposed paper introduces a detailed finite element modelling strategy that can be used as an alternative to experimental tests to represent the behaviour of masonry-infilled RC frames under earthquake loading. Several examples of RC infilled frames with different infill configurations and properties subjected to cyclic loading are analysed using the proposed modelling approach. The comparison between numerical and experimental results shows that the numerical models capture the overall nonlinear behaviour of the physical specimens with adequate accuracy, predicting their monotonic stiffness, strength and several failure mechanisms.