Tests on cyclic behavior of reinforced concrete frames with brick infill

This paper reports the results of cyclic loading tests performed on four specimens consisting of reinforced concrete frames with brick infill walls. The brick infill is pre‐laid, followed by the cast in‐place RC columns and beams. Test parameters include the height‐to‐length ratio of the brick infill wall and the mortar compressive strength. Test results reveal that the in‐plane lateral strength of brick infill wall is related to the fracture path. The fracture path for brick infill walls with large height‐to‐length ratios includes bed joints, cross joints, and vertical splitting of bricks. As a result, the lateral strength of this type of brick infill wall is larger. In comparison, the fracture path for brick infill walls with small height‐to‐length ratios only passes through joints, which is the reason why they have lower lateral strength. Mortar with higher strength improves the lateral strength of brick infill wall. In addition to presenting experimental observations in detail, this paper compares the test results with those obtained from existing methods for assessment of seismic resistance. Comments and recommendations are offered with respect to the capabilities of the assessment methods in predicting stiffness, strength, and ultimate deformation capacity of brick infill walls. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

R/C frame–infill interaction model and its application to Indonesian buildings

This paper proposes a new analytical model for masonry‐infilled R/C frames to evaluate the seismic performance considering R/C frame–infill interactions. The proposed analytical model replaces masonry infill with a diagonal compression strut, which represents distributed compression transferred between frame and infill interfaces. The equivalent strut width is presented as a function of the frame–infill contact length, which can be evaluated by static equilibriums related to compression balance and lateral displacement compatibility at the frame–infill interfaces. The proposed analytical model was verified through comparisons with experimental results obtained for several brick masonry‐infilled R/C frames representing a typical R/C building with nonstructural masonry infill in Indonesia. As a result, good agreements were observed between the experimental and analytical values of the lateral strength and ductility of the infilled frames. The seismic performances of two earthquake‐damaged R/C buildings with different damage conditions were evaluated considering infill effects by applying the proposed analytical model. Consequently, the nonstructural brick masonry infill significantly affected the seismic resistances of the buildings, which seemed to lead to differing levels of damage for each building. These results indicate that the proposed analytical model can be an effective tool for more precisely screening earthquake‐vulnerable existing R/C buildings in Indonesia. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

Field measurements for calibration of simplified models of the stiffening effect of infill masonry walls in high-rise RC framed and shear-wall buildings

As a type of nonstructural component, infill walls play a significant role in the seismic behavior of high-rise buildings. However, the stiffness of the infill wall is generally either ignored or considered by simplified empirical criteria that lead to a period shortening. The difference can be greatly decreased by using a structural identification methodology. In this study, an ambient vibration test was performed on four on-site reinforced concrete high-rise buildings, and the design results were compared with the PKPM models using corresponding finite element(FE) models. A diagonal strut model was used to simulate the behavior of the infill wall, and the identified modal parameters measured from the on-site test were employed to calibrate the parameters of the diagonal strut in the FE models. The SAP2000 models with calibrated elastic modulus were used to evaluate the seismic response in the elastic state. Based on the load-displacement relationship of the infill wall, nonlinear dynamic analysis models were built in PERFORM-3 D and calibrated using the measured modal periods. The analysis results revealed that the structural performance under small/large earthquake records were both strengthened by infill walls, and the contribution of infill walls should be considered for better accuracy in the design process.     

Earthquake performance improvement of low rise RC buildings using high strength clay brick walls

Large number of vulnerable reinforced concrete (RC) buildings exists in earthquake prone areas. These low cost residential and/or commercial buildings, which are three to seven-stories high, usually do not receive essential engineering services during the construction phase. Finding cheap, easily applicable and occupant friendly retrofitting techniques are extremely important to reduce the seismic risk of these buildings. As an attempt to this, a particular type of high strength clay brick is studied to evaluate its potential for the structural retrofitting. A set of experiment was conducted to assess the important mechanical characteristics of the infill walls made from these bricks. Also the performance of two RC frames retrofitted with these walls, having different connection details between the wall and RC members was examined experimentally. The analytical nonlinear static analyses of these specimens have been performed using SeismoStruct to achieve some model parameters for representing the “infill wall model” in the program. Adaptive pushover and nonlinear time history analyses were conducted to investigate the performance of a six storey representative RC frame retrofitted with these walls. Evaluation of the results obtained in these analyses prove that this retrofitting technique introduces important strength and stiffness increments to the structure, regarding its seismic demands, which are similar to the results obtained from the experiments.     

Cyclic testing of a single bay reinforced concrete frames with various types of masonry infill

In this paper, a contribution of various types of masonry infill to the behaviour of reinforced concrete frames under lateral loads is presented. As a part of the bigger project, ten one‐bay, one‐storey reinforced concrete frames were designed according to the EC8, built in a scale 1:2.5, infilled with masonry and tested under constant vertical and cyclic lateral load. The masonry wall had various strength properties, namely, high strength hollow clay brick blocks, medium strength hollow clay brick blocks and low strength lightweight autoclaved aerated concrete blocks. There were no additional shear connectors between the masonry and frame. The results showed that the composite ‘framed wall’ structure had much higher stiffness, damping and initial strength than the bare frame structure. Masonry infill filled in the load capacity gap from very low (0.05%) to drifts when the frame took over (0.75%). The structures behaved as linear monolithic elements to drifts of 0.1%, reached the maximum lateral capacities at drift of 0.3%, maintained it to drifts of 0.75% and after that their behaviour depended on the frame. Masonry infill had severe damage at drift levels of about 0.75% but contributed to the overall system resistance to drifts of about 1%. At that drift level, the frame had only minor damage and was tested to drifts of about 2% without any loss of capacity. Improvement of the ‘infill provisions’ in the codes could be sought by taking into account the contribution of a common masonry that reduces expected damages by lowering the drift levels. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An effective simplified model of composite compression struts for partially-restrained steel frame with reinforced concrete infill walls

To resolve the issue regarding inaccurate prediction of the hysteretic behavior by micro-based numerical analysis for partially-restrained(PR)steel frames with solid reinforced concrete(RC)infill walls,an innovative simplified model of composite compression struts is proposed on the basis of experimental observation on the cracking distribution,load transferring mechanism,and failure modes of RC infill walls filled in PR steel frame.The proposed composite compression struts model for the solid RC infill walls is composed ofαinclined struts and main diagonal struts.Theαinclined struts are used to reflect the part of the lateral force resisted by shear connectors along the frame-wall interface,while the main diagonal struts are introduced to take into account the rest of the lateral force transferred along the diagonal direction due to the complicated interaction between the steel frame and RC infill walls.This study derives appropriate formulas for the effective widths of theαinclined strut and main diagonal strut,respectively.An example of PR steel frame with RC infill walls simulating simulated by the composite inclined compression struts model is illustrated.The maximum lateral strength and the hysteresis curve shape obtained from the proposed composite strut model are in good agreement with those from the test results,and the backbone curve of a PR steel frame with RC infill walls can be predicted precisely when the inter-story drift is within 1%.This simplified model can also predict the structural stiffness and the equivalent viscous damping ratio well when the inter-story drift ratio exceeds 0.5%.     

墙体开洞影响下房屋砖砌体结构地震易损性分析

为获取可靠的墙体开洞影响下房屋砖砌体结构地震易损性分析结果,采用ABAQUS有限元分析软件构建房屋砖砌体结构墙体模型,设置合理的墙体模型参数和数值模拟参数;对比模拟数值与以往研究的测试值,证明所构建模型参数取值合理;将截取的峰值段江油地震波作为上述模型的地震动输入,根据测得的房屋砖砌体结构的力学变化数据,分析房屋砖砌体结构的地震易损性。分析结果表明:地震情况下,随着墙体开洞率的增加,墙体荷载能力下降、墙体水平承载力增长幅度降低、墙体相对刚度退化率增加;墙体开洞数量越多,房屋砖砌体结构侧向刚度下降越快。因此分析得出墙体开洞率大、墙体开洞数量多,房屋砖砌体结构的地震易损性越显著。     

In‐plane and out‐of‐plane behavior of confined masonry walls for various toothing and openings details and prediction of their strength and stiffness

Eight half‐scale brick masonry walls were tested to study two important aspects of confined masonry (CM) walls related to its seismic behavior under in‐plane and out‐of‐plane loads. Four solid wall specimens tested to investigate the role of type of interface between the masonry and tie‐columns, such as toothing varying from none to every course. The other four specimens with openings were tested to study the effectiveness of various strengthening options around opening to mitigate their negative influence. In the set of four walls, one wall was infilled frame while the other three were CM walls of different configurations. The experimental results were further used to determine the accuracy of various existing models in predicting the in‐plane response quantities of CM walls. Confined masonry walls maintained structural integrity even when severely damaged and performed much better than infill frames. No significant effect of toothing details was noticed although toothing at every brick course was preferred for better post‐peak response. For perforated walls, provision of vertical elements along with continuous horizontal bands around openings was more effective in improving the overall response. Several empirical and semi‐empirical equations are available to estimate the lateral strength and stiffness of CM walls, but those including the contribution of longitudinal reinforcement in tie‐columns provided better predictions. The available equations along with reduction factors proposed for infills could not provide good estimates of strength and stiffness for perforated CM walls. However, recently proposed relations correlating strength/stiffness with the degree of confinement provided reasonable predictions for all wall specimens. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

免蒸免烧粉煤灰多孔砖墙体抗震性能试验研究

免蒸压免烧结粉煤灰多孔砖是一种新型承重墙体材料。本文通过三片墙体低周反复荷载试验,系统研究了粉煤灰多孔砖墙体的力学性能和抗震性能,包括墙体的破坏特征、滞回曲线、刚度、延性、骨架曲线及受剪承载力等。试验结果表明,免蒸压免烧结粉煤灰多孔砖墙体的破坏形态与普通黏土砖墙体相似,主要呈剪切破坏;墙体具有较高的受剪承载力、延性和耗能能力,适宜在地震区村镇建筑中推广应用。     

Effects of infill walls and floor diaphragms on the dynamic characteristics of a narrow‐rectangle building

Most buildings in Singapore are lightly reinforced concrete structures, which are mainly designed for gravity loading only, because Singapore is an island country located in a low‐to‐moderate seismic region. The dynamic properties of a typical high‐rise residential building with a long, narrow rectangular floor plan are studied using both experimental and numerical methods. The effects of the brick infill walls and the flexible diaphragms on the dynamic characteristics of the building are discussed in detail. The results from the ambient vibration tests are correlated with the numerical results of three different finite element models with different levels of sophistication. They include a bare frame model, a frame model with brick infill walls, and a frame model with both brick infill walls and flexible diaphragms. The dynamic properties of the third model match very well with the measured results in terms of both the natural frequencies and the mode shapes. The correlation results demonstrate the respective effects of the brick infill walls and the flexible diaphragms on the dynamic characteristics of the narrow‐rectangle building structure. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seismic safety assessment of existing masonry infill structures in Nepal

Reinforced concrete (RC) buildings in Nepal are constructed with RC frames and masonry infill panels. These structures exhibit a highly non-linear inelastic behavior resulting from the interaction between the panels and frames. This paper presents an extensive case study of existing RC buildings in Nepal. Non-linear analyses were performed on structural models of the buildings considered as a bare frame and with masonry infill, in order to evaluate the influence of infill walls on the failure mechanisms. Five three-storey buildings with different structural configurations and detailing were selected. The effect of masonry infill panels on structural response was delineated by comparing the bare-framed response with the infill response. Seismic performance is evaluated with regard to global strength, stiffness, energy dissipation, inter-storey drift, and total deflection of the structure. A parametric analysis of structures with masonry infill is also performed. For this, the influence of different material properties is studied, namely diagonal compressive stress, modulus of elasticity and tensile stress of masonry infill panels. Study results show that masonry infill increases the global strength and stiffness of the structures; it decreases the inter-storey drift and hence the total displacement of the structure. The results quantify the influence of the infill panels on structural response and, in particular, the effect of the diagonal compressive strength of the masonry wall.     

Influence of masonry infill panels on the vibration and stiffness characteristics of R/C frame buildings

Vibration measurements were performed on two adjacent, three-storey reinforced concrete frame buildings with hollow clay brick infill panels. The first building was a bare frame and the second one was a similar frame infilled with brick panels. The fundamental period for the infilled frame building was much smaller than that of the bare frame building. Using shear beam lumped mass models and the vibration data the actual lateral stiffness of both buildings was identified. The lateral stiffness of the infilled frame building was found to be seven times that of the bare frame building. Four numerical models of the infilled frame building were constructed. The frame and floors were represented using an experimentally validated model and the infill panels by one of three commonly used ‘equivalent diagonal truss’ models or by plane stress finite elements. Only the plane stress finite element model produced a reasonable agreement with the experimental results. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Performance of clay masonry veneer in wood‐stud walls subjected to out‐of‐plane seismic loads

This paper presents the findings of shaking‐table experiments conducted to examine the out‐of‐plane seismic performance of masonry veneer walls. Seven wall assemblies were tested, each consisting of a clay masonry veneer anchored to a wood‐stud backing. Design variables include the type of veneer ties, tie spacing, and presence or absence of mortar joint reinforcement and window opening. The walls were designed and constructed in accordance with current US code provisions. Results of the experiments show that failure of the corrugated ties is governed by pullout of the nails from the wood studs, while failure of the rigid ties is governed by detachment from the mortar joints or pull‐through of the screw heads through fastener holes. Both types of ties show satisfactory performance under ground motions corresponding to Design Basis and Maximum Considered Earthquakes representative of Seismic Design Category E. Although the rigid ties were stronger than the corrugated ties, they had wider vertical spacing and failed at a slightly higher seismic load. Observed extraction capacities of the nails show high variability, which merits attention. Joint reinforcement did not show any noticeable effect on the out‐of‐plane behavior of the veneer. Results of an analytical study have shown that the detachment of a veneer from the backing system is preceded by veneer cracking, which influences the distribution of tie forces, and that the vertical tie spacing influences the cracking load for the veneer. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cyclic tests of steel plate shear walls using box‐shape vertical boundary elements with or without infill concrete

The steel plate shear wall (SPSW) is an effective lateral force resisting system in which unstiffened steel infill plates are connected to the horizontal and vertical boundary elements (VBEs) on all sides of the plates. The boundary elements must be designed to resist the tension field force of the infill panels. When the VBEs are made from a steel box section, the flange of each box VBE connected with the infill panels can be pulled out‐of‐plane by significant panel forces, called pull‐out action. This study investigates capacity design methods for box VBEs in SPSWs. Simplified fixed beam and portal frame models aim to estimate the pull‐out responses of the flange of the box sections with and without infill concrete, respectively. In this study, cyclic tests of three full‐scale two‐story SPSWs using box VBEs with or without the infill concrete are conducted. Inelastic pushover analyses of the finite element models are conducted. The tests and analytical results confirm that the proposed design methods, which aimed to prevent the full yield of the flange under the pull‐out action, are applicable. Furthermore, the test and analytical results suggest that the initial yielding of the flange of box VBEs under the collective effects of the pull‐out action on the flange, the gravity load, and the sway action on the SPSW represents a local yielding. A strict prohibition of the initial yielding on the flange under the aforementioned collective effects is not recommended for pursuing a cost‐effective design. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effective stiffness of modern unreinforced masonry walls

Code design of unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings is based on elastic analysis, which requires as input parameter the effective stiffness of URM walls. Eurocode estimates the effective stiffness as 50% of the gross sectional elastic stiffness, but comparisons with experimental results have shown that this may not yield accurate predictions. In this paper, 79 shear‐compression tests of modern URM walls of different masonry typologies from the literature are investigated. It shows that both the initial and the effective stiffness increase with increasing axial load ratio and that the effective‐to‐initial stiffness ratios are approximately 75% rather than the stipulated 50%. An empirical relationship that estimates the E‐modulus as a function of the axial load and the masonry compressive strength is proposed, yielding better estimates of the elastic modulus than the provision in Eurocode 6, which calculates the E‐modulus as a multiple of the compressive strength. For computing the ratio of the effective to initial stiffness, a mechanics‐based formulation is built on a recently developed analytical model for the force‐displacement response of URM walls. The model attributes the loss in stiffness to diagonal cracking and brick crushing, both of which are taken into account using mechanical considerations. The obtained results of the effective‐to‐initial stiffness ratio agree well with the test data. A sensitivity analysis using the validated model shows that the ratio of effective‐to‐initial stiffness is for most axial load ratios and wall geometries around 75%. Therefore, a modification of the fixed ratio of effective‐to‐initial stiffness from 50% to 75% is suggested.     

填充墙对底框结构地震反应的影响

为研究填充墙对底层框架多层砌体房屋地震反应的影响,以典型的填充墙-底层框架多层砌体房屋为基础,建立有限元计算模型并进行了弹塑性动力时程分析。根据不同模型的计算结果以及填充墙的刚度和强度,分析了填充墙对底层框架多层砌体房屋自振周期、地震作用下房屋整体变形、底层框架的损伤以及填充墙与底层框架相互作用的影响。计算结果表明：填充墙对房屋整体地震反应产生明显影响,其影响不能忽略。在上部砌体结构质量和刚度不变的情况下,结构自振周期随着填充墙刚度的增加而降低;随着填充墙与底层框架之间连接作用的增强,结构整体的变形减小,底层框架的损伤增大。当填充墙与底层框架之间采用弱连接时,采用强度较高的填充墙可以提高结构整体的变形能力,从而提高结构整体的抗震能力。     

横墙对框架结构动力响应的影响分析

填充墙具有显著的刚度和承载力贡献。建筑结构震害调查发现,不开洞横墙的破坏程度远小于开洞纵墙的破坏程度,从宏观现象可判断大部分多层建筑的破坏主要由结构纵向运动造成。为研究横墙在地震作用下的性能及其对结构整体动力响应的影响,以经受2021年5月21日云南漾濞6.4级地震震害的花椒园小学教学楼为研究对象,按当地抗震计算参数进行弹塑性时程分析。采用等效斜压杆模拟横向填充墙,设置无填充墙框架结构、带黏土砖墙的框架结构、带空心砖墙的框架结构和带加气混凝土砌块填充墙的框架结构模型,选取10组地震波横向输入。研究结果表明,4种结构自振周期均处于具有统计学意义的平台段,平均加速度响应较接近,质量和刚度变化不会使结构加速度产生规律的变化;受结构自重影响,无填充墙的框架结构底部剪力小于带填充墙的框架结构,带填充墙的框架结构位移远小于无填充墙的框架结构;带有多道不开洞横墙的多层框架结构的破坏主要是由结构纵向破坏引起的。     

Damage to urban buildings in zones of intensities Ⅷ and Ⅶ during the Wenchuan earthquake and discussion on some typical damages

The outline and typical characteristics of damages to building in Jiangyou city and Anxian county (intensity Ⅷ), Mianyang city and Deyang city (intensity Ⅶ) are introduced in the paper. The damage ratios, based on the sample statistics of multi-story brick buildings together with multi-story brick buildings with RC frame at first story (BBF), are presented. Then some typical damages, such as horizontal cricks of brick masonry buildings, Ⅹ-shaped cricks on the walls under windows, the damages to columns, beams and infill walls of frame buildings and the damage to half circle-shaped masonry walls, are discussed.     

阻尼填充墙优化布置对不规则框架结构抗震性能的影响

在不规则结构中,填充墙的表现对框架结构的局部以及整体抗震性能的表现显得非常重要。随着阻尼填充墙的深入研究,大大提高了框架填充墙结构的抗震性能。但由于阻尼填充墙施工工艺复杂、施工成本较高,很难得以大规模使用。为了实现既降低施工的难度和成本又提高框架结构的抗震性能,本文选取一座不规则框架结构对其地震表现进行分析。采用局部优化布置阻尼填充墙的方法,达到既提高结构抗震性能又降低施工难度和成本的要求,为框架填充墙结构的设计提供一定的建议。     

On the natural frequencies of infilled frames

Three approximate models are considered for the evaluation of the first few natural frequencies and associated mode shapes of infilled frames, a commonly occurring composite structural system formed by the combination of plane frames and filler walls. The reasonableness of the models is checked with the available experimental results and with the corresponding finite element solutions. The multiple strut model, wherein the infills are replaced by a set of equivalent multiple struts, can account for the frame–infill separation and infill openings and this model is seen to be an improvement over the single equivalent diagonal strut models proposed by earlier investigators. The shear—flexure cantilever analogy, by rationally evaluating the fundamental frequency, aids the equivalent lateral load procedures of the earthquake analysis. For dealing with the frames with central infill openings an equivalent plane frame model is discussed. Besides presenting the approximate models, the effect of frame—infill separation in reducing the fundamental frequency is investigated and an empirical relation is presented in this regard. Also some of the factors influencing the frame—infill contact lengths are studied and this indicates that the contact lengths are highly sensitive and indeterminate. Some constructional methods for avoiding separation and ensuring effective composite action between the frame and infill are also suggested.