Abstract
In the past, Korea was classified as a region not affected by earthquakes. However, recent increase of earthquakes has forced to strengthen standards of earthquake resistant designs of structures to minimize seismic damage. In addition, it was thought that masonry infill walls in buildings are only acting as partitions, so these walls are not considered in analyzing building structures. But it was found that when seismic loads are applied to a structure with masonry infill walls, the walls affect the structure. Accordingly, this study conducted nonlinear static analyses for a structure constructed before applying earthquake resistant designs in two cases: when considering masonry walls and when not. The result showed that the seismic performance of the structure is insufficient. Thus, the structural resistance of the structure was also studied in two cases: when reinforcing with steel plate braces and when using carbon fiber braces. In the two cases reinforcing two different stiffeners, it was appeared that the behaviors of the structure were similar, though the cross-section area of a carbon fiber brace used to reinforcing the structure is only 12.6% of a steel plate brace, and its weight is only 2.8%. Thus, the reinforcing effect of the thin, light-weighted carbon fiber brace is much larger than that of the steel plate brace, when considering usability and constructability of both materials.