ROLE OF MASONRY INFILL IN SEISMIC RESISTANCE OF RC STRUCTURES

The influence of partial masonry infilling on the seismic lateral behavior of low, medium, and high rise buildings is addressed. The most simple equivalent frame system with reduced degrees of freedom is proposed for handling multi-story multi-bay infilled frames. The system is composed of a homogenized continuum for the reinforced concrete members braced with unilateral diagonal struts for each bay, which are only activated in compression. Identification of the equivalent system characteristics and nonlinear material properties is accomplished from the concepts of inverse analysis, along with statistical tests of the hypotheses, employed to establish the appropriate filtering scheme and the proper accuracy tolerance. The suggested system allows for nonlinear finite element static and dynamic analysis of sophisticated infilled reinforced concrete frames. Sensitivity analysis is undertaken to check the suitability of the proposed system to manipulate various structural applications. The effect of number of stories, number of bays, infill proportioning, and infill locations are investigated. Geometric and material nonlinearity of both infill panel and reinforced concrete frame are considered in the nonlinear finite element analysis. Energy consideration using modified Rayleigh’s method is employed to figure out the response parameters under lateral dynamic excitations. The results reflect the significance of infill in increasing the strength, stiffness, and frequency of the entire system depending on the position and amount of infilling. Lower infilling is noted to provide more stiffness for the system as compared with upper locations