• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제23권6호
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• pp.527-534
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• 2022

EDCC (Eco-Friendly Ductile Cementitious Composites) is a recently created class of engineered cementitious composites that exhibit extremely high ductility and elastoplastic behavior under pure tension. EDCC contains reduced amounts of cement and very large volumes of fly ash. Due to these properties, EDCC has become one of the solutions to use in seismic upgrading. This paper discloses previous studies and research that discussed the seismic upgrading of unreinforced, non-grouted, unconfined, and non-load bearing masonry walls which are called URM infill walls using the EDCC technique. URM infill wall is one of the weak links in the building structure to withstand the earthquake waves, as the brittle behavior of the URM infill walls behaves poorly during seismic events. The purpose of this study is to fill a knowledge gap about the theoretical and experimental ways to use the EDCC in URM infill walls. The findings reflect the ability of the EDCC to change the behavior from brittle to ductile to a certain percentage behavior, increasing the overall drift before collapse as it increases the energy dissipation, and resists significant shaking under extensive levels with various types and intensities.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제69권6호
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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.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제89권5호
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• pp.479-489
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• 2024

The cracking mechanism in ceramsite aerated concrete block (CACB) infill walls were studied in low seismic fortification intensity coastal areas with frequent occurrence of typhoons. The inter-story drifts of an eight-story residential building under wind loads and a seismic fortification intensity of six degrees were analyzed by using the PKPM software. The maximum inter-story drift ratio of the structure in wind load was found to be comparable to that under the seismic fortification intensity of six degrees. However, when accounting for the large gust wind speed of typhoon, the maximum inter-story drift ratio was much larger than that obtained under reference wind load. In addition, the finite element models of RC frames were employed by displacement loading to simulate two scenarios with and without window hole in the CACB infill walls, respectively. The simulation results show no signs of cracking in both the infill walls with window hole and those without window for the inter-story drift caused by seismic loads and the reference wind load. However, both types of infill walls experienced structural creaking when assessing the gust wind pressure recorded from previous typhoon monitoring. It is concluded that an underestimate of wind loads may contribute substantially to the cracking of frame CACB infill walls in low seismic fortification intensity coastal areas. Consequently, it is imperative to adopt wind pressure values derived from gust wind speeds in the design of CACB infill walls within frame structures. Finally, the future research directions of avoiding cracks in CACB filled walls were proposed. They were the material performance improving and building structure optimizing.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제26권6호
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• pp.489-499
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• 2024

Infill masonry walls are vulnerable to lateral loads, including seismic, wind, and concentrated push loads. Various strengthening metal fittings have been proposed to improve lateral load resistance, particularly against seismic loads. This study introduces the use of post-compressed wedges as a novel reinforcement method for infill masonry walls to enhance lateral load resistance. The resistance of the infill masonry wall against lateral-concentrated push loads was assessed using an out-of-plane push-over test on specimens sized 2,300×2,410×190 mm³. The presence or absence of wedges and wedge spacing were set as variables. The push-over test results showed that both the unreinforced specimen and the specimen reinforced with 300 mm spaced wedges toppled, while the specimen reinforced with 100 mm spaced wedges remained upright. Peak loads were measured to be 0.74, 29.77, and 5.88 kN for unreinforced specimens and specimens reinforced with 100 mm and 300 mm spaced wedges, respectively. Notably, a tighter reinforcement spacing yielded a similar strength, as expected, which was attributed to the increased friction force between the masonry wall and steel frame. The W-series specimens exhibited a trend comparable to that of the displacement ductility ratio. Overall, the findings validate that post-compressed wedges improve the out-of-plane strength of infill masonry walls.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제10권1호
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• pp.163-178
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• 2016

Composite Lightweight (CL) insulated walls have gained wide adoption recently because the exterior claddings of steel building frames have their cost effectiveness, good thermal and structural efficiency. To investigate the seismic behavior, lateral stiffness, ductility and energy dissipation of steel frames with the CL infill walls, five one-story one-bay steel frames were fabricated and tested under cyclic loads. Test results showed that the bolted connections allow relative movement between CL infill walls and steel frames, enabling the system to exhibit satisfactory performance under lateral loads. Additionally, it is found that the addition of diagonal steel straps to the CL infill wall significantly increases the initial lateral stiffness, load-carrying capacity, ductility and energy dissipation capacity of the system. Furthermore, the test results indicate that the lateral stiffness values of the frames with the CL infill wall are similar to those of the bare steel frames in large lateral displacement.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• 제17권6호
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• pp.777-790
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to investigate the seismic performance of reinforced concrete (RC) frames strengthened by profiled steel sheet bracing which takes the influence of infill walls into consideration. One-bay, two-story, 1/3 scale two specimens shared same feature of dimensions, one specimen consists only beams and columns; the other one is reinforced by profiled steel sheet bracing with infill walls. Hysteretic curves, envelope curves, stiffness degradation curves and energy dissipation capacities are presented based on test data. Test results indicate that the ultimate load of strengthened specimen has been improved by 225%. The stiffness of reinforced by profiled steel sheet bracing has been increased by 108%. This demonstrates that infill walls and profiled steel sheet bracing enhanced the strength and stiffness distinctly. Energy dissipation has an obvious increase after 12 cycles. This shows that the reinforced specimen is able to bear the lateral load effectively and absorb lots of seismic energy.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제12권3호
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• pp.333-347
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• 2017

Masonry infill walls are unavoidable parts of any building to create a separation between internal space and external environment. In general, there are some prevalent openings in the infill wall due to functional needs, architectural considerations or aesthetic concerns. In current design practice, the strength and stiffness contribution of infill walls is not considered. However, the presence of infill walls may decisively influence the seismic response of structures subjected to earthquake loads and cause a different behavior from that predicted for a bare frame. Furthermore, partial openings in the masonry infill wall are significant parameter affecting the seismic behavior of infilled frames thereby decreasing the lateral stiffness and strength. The possible effects of openings in the infill wall on seismic behavior of RC frames is analytically studied by means of pushover analysis of several bare, partially and fully infilled frames having different bay and story numbers. The stiffness loss due to partial opening is introduced by the stiffness reduction factors which are developed from finite element analysis of frames considering frame-infill interaction. Pushover curves of frames are plotted and the maximum base shear forces, the yield displacement, the yield base shear force coefficient, the displacement demand, interstory drift ratios and the distribution of story shear forces are determined. The comparison of parameters both in terms of seismic demand and capacity indicates that partial openings decisively influences the nonlinear behavior of RC frames and cause a different behavior from that predicted for a bare frame or fully infilled frame.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제5권5호
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• pp.553-570
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• 2013

Using of masonry infill as partitions, in flat slab frame buildings is a common practice in many parts of the world. The infill is, generally, not considered in the design and the buildings are designed as bare frames. More of fundamental information in the effect of masomary infill on the seismic performance of RC building frames is in great demand for structural engineers. Therefore the main aim of this research is to evaluate the seismic performance of such buildings without (bare frame) and with various systems of the masonary infill. For this purpose, thirteen three dimensional models are chosen and analyzed by SAP2000 program. In this study the stress strain relation model proposed by Crisafulli for the hysteric behaviour of masonary subjected to cyclic loading is used. The results show that the nonstructural masonary infill can impart significant increase global strength and stiffness of such building frames and can enhance the seismic behaviour of flat slab frame building to large extent depending on infill wall system. As a result great deal of insight has been obtained on seismic response of such flat slab buildings which enable the structural engineer to determine the optimum position of infill wall between the columns.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• 제76권3호
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• pp.311-324
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• 2020

Until now, a comparative study on fully and partially-connected steel shear walls leading to enhancing strength and stiffness reduction of partially-connected steel plate shear wall structures has not been reported. In this paper a number of 4-story and 8-story steel plate shear walls, are considered with three different connection details of infill plate to surrounding frame. The specimens are modeled using nonlinear finite element method verified excellently with the experimental results and analyzed under monotonic loading. A comparison between initial stiffness and shear strength of models as well as percentage of shear force by model boundary frame and infill plate are performed. Moreover, a comparison between energy dissipation, ductility factor and distribution of Von-Mises stresses of models are presented. According to the results, the initial stiffness, shear resistance, energy dissipation and ductility of the models with beam-only connected infill plates (SSW-BO) is found to be about 53%, 12%, 15% and 48% on average smaller than those of models with fully-connected infill plates (SPSW), respectively. However, performance characteristics of semi-supported steel shear walls (SSSW) containing secondary columns by simultaneously decreasing boundary frame strength and increasing thickness of infill plates are comparable to those of SPSWs. Results show that by using secondary columns as well as increasing thickness of infill plates, the stress demands on boundary frame decreases substantially by as much as 35%. A significant increase in infill plate share on shear capacity by as much as 95% and 72% progress for the 4-story SSW-BO and 8-story SSSW8, respectively, as compared with non-strengthened counterparts. A similar trend is achieved by strengthening secondary columns of 4-story SSSW leading to an increase of 50% in shear force contribution of infill plate.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• 제8권1호
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• pp.19-35
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• 2015

This study compares the seismic performances of two reinforced concrete frame specimens tested by the pseudo-dynamic procedure. The pair of 3-storey, 3-bay frames specimens are constructed with typical characteristics of older construction which is lacking seismic design. One of the specimens is a bare frame while the other is infilled with low-strength autoclave aerated concrete (AAC) block masonry. The focus of this study is to investigate the influence of low strength masonry infill walls on the seismic response of older RC frames designed for gravity loads. It is found that the presence of weak infill walls considerably reduce deformations and damage in the upper stories while their influence at the critical ground story is not all that positive. Infill walls tend to localize damage at the critical story due to a peculiar frame-infill interaction, and impose larger internal force and deformation demands on the columns and beams bounding the infills. Therefore the general belief in earthquake engineering that infills develop a second line of defence against lateral forces in seismically deficient frames is nullified in case of low-strength infill walls in the presented experimental research.