The influence of masonry infill walls on the seismic capacity of reinforced concrete frames : a probabilistic study

Abstract EN

Many buildings are constructed with masonry infill walls.

However, because of the absence of a realistic yet simple analytical model, the contribution of masonry infill panels having full contact with the R.C.

frame members is often neglected in evaluating the seismic capacity.

For many years the infill walls formed an integral part of buildings ; however their distribution, size and material are totally based on architectural requirements.

Neglecting the existence of infill panels as structural elements in determining seismic performance of buildings will result in inaccurate estimation of lateral stiffness, strength, ductility and seismic capacity of buildings.

Models used for infill panels can be divided into macro models and micro models.

In macro models, the infill panel is replaced by one or two diagonal struts (Holmes [1], Chrysotomou et al.

[2] and Stafford Smith [3]).

Properties of the struts are determined based on experimental data or micro model (finite element) investigations.

Macro models are computationally efficient and suitable to study the overall structural response of the building.

The objective of this research is to conduct a probabilistic study in order to numerically assess the effect of infill panels on the performance of buildings when subjected to earthquakes.

Effect of infill panel distribution, thickness and strength are considered in this study.

Moreover, the effect of openings in infill panels is also considered.