• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.61 no.5
• /
• pp.663-674
• /
• 2017

The determination of the fundamental period of vibration of a structure is essential to earthquake design. Current codes provide formulas for the approximate estimation of the fundamental period of earthquake-resistant building systems. These formulas are dependent only on the height of the structure or number of storeys without taking into account the presence of infill walls into the structure, despite the fact that infill walls increase the stiffness and mass of the structure leading to significant changes in the fundamental period. Furthermore, such a formulation is overly conservative and unable to account for structures with geometric irregularities. In this study, which comprises the companion paper of previous published research by the authors, the effect of the vertical geometric irregularities on the fundamental periods of masonry infilled structures has been investigated, through a large set of infilled frame structure cases. Based on these results, an attempt to quantify the reduction of the fundamental period due to the vertical geometric irregularities has been made through a proposal of properly reduction factor.

• Coupled systems mechanics
• /
• v.5 no.2
• /
• pp.127-144
• /
• 2016

Two dimensional numerical investigations were carried out to study the influence of interface thickness and their pattern on the behavior of reinforced concrete frames subjected to in-plane lateral loads using commercial finite element tool SAP 2000. The linear elastic analysis was carried out on one and two bay structural systems as well as the influence of number of stories was studied by varying the number of stories as single, three and five. The cement mortar was used as interface material and their effect was studied by varying thicknesses as 6, 8, 10, 14 and 20 mm. The interface was recognized as one sided, two sided, three sided and four sided and their effect was studied by removing the interface material between the reinforced concrete frame and masonry infill. The effect of lateral loads on infill masonry wall was also studied by varying assumed loads as 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 kN. The behavior of infilled frames studied has revealed that there is a maximum influence of interface thickness and interface pattern corresponding to 10 mm thickness. In general, the lateral displacement of frame is increased linearly with increase in lateral loads.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.69 no.6
• /
• pp.677-691
• /
• 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
• /
• v.64 no.6
• /
• pp.765-781
• /
• 2017

The out-of-plane response of infill walls has recently gained a growing attention and has been recognised fundamental in the damage assessment of reinforced concrete and steel framed buildings subjected to seismic loads. The observation of damage after earthquakes highlighted that out-of-plane collapse of masonry infills may occur even during seismic events of low or moderate intensity, causing both casualty risks and unfavourable situations affecting the overall structural response. Even though studies concerning the out-of-plane behaviour of infills are not as many as those focused on the in-plane response, in the last decades, a substantial number of researches have been carried out on the out-of-plane behaviour of infills. In this study, the out-of-plane response is investigated considering different aspects. First, damages observed after past earthquakes are examined, with the aim of identifying the main parameters involved and the most critical configurations. Secondly, the response recorded in about 150 experimental tests is deeply examined, focusing on the influence of geometrical characteristics, boundary conditions, prior in-plane damage, presence of reinforcing elements and openings. Finally, different theoretical capacity models and code provisions are discussed and compared, giving specific attention to those based on the arching theory. The reliability of some of these models is herein tested with reference to experimental results. The comparison between analytically predicted and experimental values allows to appreciate the extent of approximation of such methods.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.201-209
• /
• 2019

Response modification factors of school facilities for non-seismic RC moment frames with partial masonry infills in 'Manual for Seismic Performance Evaluation and Retrofit of School Facilities' published in 2018 were investigated in the preceding study. However, since previous studies are based on 2D frame analysis and limited analysis conditions, additional verification needs to be performed to further apply various conditions including orthogonal effect of seismic load. Therefore, this study is to select appropriate response modification factors of school facilities for non-seismic RC moment frames with partial masonry infills by 3D frame analysis. The results are as follows. An appropriate response modification factor for non-seismic RC moment frames with partial masonry infills is proposed as 2.5 for all cases if the period is longer than 0.6 seconds. Also if the period is less than 0.4 seconds and the ratio of shear-controlled columns is less than 30%, 2.5 is chosen too. However, if the period is less than 0.4 seconds and the ratio of shear-controlled columns is higher than 30%, the response modification factor shall be reduced to 2.0. If the period is between 0.4 and 0.6 seconds, then linearly interpolates the response correction factor.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.811-828
• /
• 2016

This study aims to present nonlinear time history analysis results of double leaf cavity wall (DLCW) reinforced concrete structure exposed to shake table tests. Simulation of the model was done by a Finite Element (FE) program. Shake table experiment was performed at the National Civil Engineering Laboratory in Lisbon, Portugal. The results of the experiment were compared with numeric DLCW model and numeric model of reinforced concrete structure with unreinforced masonry wall (URM). Both DLCW and URM models have two bays and two stories. Dimensions of the tested structure and finite element models are 1:1.5 scaled according to Cauchy Froude similitude law. The URM model has no experimental results but the purpose is to compare their performance level with the DLCW model. Results of the analysis were compared with experimental response and were evaluated according to ASCE/SEI 41-06 code.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.21 no.5
• /
• pp.495-506
• /
• 2005

A neural network based model is developed for the structural analysis of masonry infilled steel frames, which can account for the non-linearities in the material properties and structural behaviour. Using the data available from the analytical methods, an ANN model with input parameters consisting of dimension of frame, size of infill, properties of steel and infill was developed. It was found to be acceptable in predicting the failure modes of infilled frames and corresponding failure load subject to limitations in the training data and the predicted results are tested using the available experimental results. The study shows the importance of validating the ANN models in simulating structural behaviour especially when the data are limited. The ANN model was also compared with the available experimental results and was found to perform well.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.47-59
• /
• 2012

The seismic performance of masonry-infilled frame structures, typical in school buildings, is evaluated through equivalent strut models. A bare frame model, concentric strut models and eccentric strut models with various material characteristics available in the literature are analyzed. Displacements and damage states at the performance points obtained by the capacity spectrum method show great differences among the models. Infill walls act positively in concentric strut models and negatively in eccentric strut models at the performance points for a given seismic demand. In addition, the behavior at the ultimate displacements shows considerably different strengths, inter-story drifts, and numbers and locations of damaged members among various modeling methods and material strengths.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.39 no.4
• /
• pp.499-520
• /
• 2011

The effectiveness of a technique for the repair of reinforced concrete members in combination with a technique for the repair of masonry walls of infilled frames, damaged due to cyclic loading, is experimentally investigated. Three single - story, one - bay, 1/3 - scale frame specimens are tested under cyclic horizontal loading, up to a drift level of 4%. One bare frame and two infilled frames with weak and strong infills, respectively, have been tasted. Specimens have spirals as shear reinforcement. The applied repair technique is mainly based on the use of thin epoxy resin infused under pressure into the crack system of the damaged RC joint bodies, the use of a polymer modified cement mortar with or without a fiberglass reinforcing mesh for the damaged infill masonry walls and the use of CFRP plates to the surfaces of the damaged structural RC members, as external reinforcement. Specimens after repair, were retested in the same way. Conclusions concerning the effectiveness of the applied repair technique, based on maximum cycles load, loading stiffness, and hysteretic energy absorption capabilities of the tested specimens, are drawn and commented upon.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.367-377
• /
• 2020

Incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) widely uses for the collapse risk assessment procedures of buildings. In this study, an IDA-based collapse risk assessment methodology is proposed, which employs a novel approach for detecting the near-collapse (NC) limit state. The proposed approach uses the modal pushover analysis results to calculate the maximum inter-story drift ratio of the structure. This value, which is used as the upper-bound limit in the IDA process, depends on the structural characteristics and global seismic responses of the structure. In this paper, steel midrise intermediate moment resisting frames (IMRFs) have selected as case studies, and their collapse risk parameters are evaluated by the suggested methodology. The composite action of a concrete floor slab and steel beams, and the interaction between the infill walls and the frames could change the collapse mechanism of the structure. In this study, the influences of the metal deck floor and autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) masonry infill walls with uniform distribution are investigated on the seismic collapse risk of the IMRFs using the proposed methodology. The results demonstrate that the suggested modified IDA method can accurately discover the near-collapse limit state. Also, this method leads to much fewer steps and lower calculation costs rather than the current IDA method. Moreover, the results show that the concrete slab and the AAC infill walls can change the collapse parameters of the structure and should be considered in the analytical modeling and the collapse assessment process of the steel mid-rise intermediate moment resisting frames.