• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.69 no.3
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• pp.257-268
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• 2019

Infills are as important members in structural design as beams, columns and braces. They have significant effect on structural behavior. Because of lots of variables in infills like material non-linear behavior, the interaction between frames and infill, etc., the infills performance during an earthquake is complicated, so have led designers do not consider the effect of infills in designing the structure. However, the experimental studies revealed that the infills have the remarkable effect on structure behavior. As if these effects ignored, it might occur soft-story phenomena, torsion or short-column effects on the structures. One simple and appropriate method for considering the infills effects in analyzing, is replacing the infills with diagonal compression strut with the same performance of real infill, instead of designing the whole infill. Because of too many uncertainties, codes and researchers gave many expressions that were not as the same as the others. The major intent of this paper is calculation the width of this diagonal strut, which has the most characteristics of infill. This paper by comprehensive on different parameters like the modulus of young or moment of inertia of columns presents a new formula for achieving the equivalent strut width. In fact, this new formula is extracted from about 60 FEM analyses models. It can be said that this formula is very efficient and accurate in estimating the equivalent strut width, considering the large number of effective parameters relative to similar relationships provided by other researchers. In most cases, the results are so close to the values obtained by the FEM. In this formula, the effect of out of plane buckling is neglected and this formula is used just in steel structures. Also, the thickness of infill panel, and the lateral force applied to frame are constant. In addition, this new formula is just for modeling the lateral stiffness. Obtaining the nearest response in analyzing is important to the designers, so this new formula can help them to reach more accurate response among a lot of experimental equations proposed by researchers.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.437-449
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• 2020

It is quite apparent that engineering concerns related to the influence of masonry infills on seismic behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) structures is likely to remain relevant in the long term, as infill walls maintain their functionalities in construction practice. Within this framework, the present paper mainly deals with the issue in terms of modal expansion of effective earthquake forces and the resultant modal responses. An adequate determination of spatial distribution of effective earthquake forces over the height of the building is highly essential for both seismic analysis and design. The possible influence of infill walls is investigated by means of modal analyses of two-, three-, and four-bay RC frames with a number of stories ranging from 3 to 8. Both uniformly and non-uniformly infilled frames are considered in numerical analyses, where infill walls are simulated by adopting the model of equivalent compression strut. Consequently, spatial distribution of effective earthquake forces, modal static base shear force response of frames, modal responses of story shears from external excitation vector and lateral floor displacements are obtained. It is found that, infill walls and their arrangement over the height of the frame structure affect the spatial distribution of modal inertia forces, as well as the considered response quantities. Moreover, the amount of influence varies in stories, but is not very dependent to bay number of frames.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2019

The masonry infill walls are one of the most popular components that are used for dividing and arranging spaces in building construction. In spite of the fact that the masonry infills have many advantages, the system needs to be used with caution when the earthquake load is to be considered. The infills tend to develop diagonal compression struts during earthquake and increase the demand in surrounding RC frames. If there are openings in the infill walls, the loading path gets even complicated and the engineering judgements are required for designing the system. In this study, a masonry infill system was investigated through finite element analysis (FEA) and the results were compared with the current design standard, ASCE 41. It is noted that the equivalent width of the compression strut estimated by ASCE 41 could be 32% less than that using detailed FEA. The global load resisting capacity was also estimated by 28% less when ASCE 41 was used compare to the FEA case. Rather than using expensive FEA, the adapting ASCE 41 for the analysis and design of the masonry infills with openings would provide a good estimation by about 25% conservatively.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.497-507
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• 2024

In squat reinforced concrete walls, the displacement capacity for lateral deformation is low and the ability to resist the axial load can quickly be lost, generating collapse. This work consists of testing two squat reinforced concrete walls. One of the specimens is built with conventional detailing of reinforced concrete walls, while the second specimen is built applying an alternative design, including stirrups along the diagonal of the wall to improve its ductility. This solution differs from the detailing of beams or coupling elements that suggest building elements equivalent to columns located diagonally in the element. The dimensions of both specimens correspond to a wall with a low aspect ratio (1:1), where the height and length of the specimen are 1.4 m, with a thickness of 120 mm. The alternative wall included stirrups placed diagonally covering approximately 25% of the diagonal strut of the wall with alternative detailing. The walls were tested under a constant axial load of 0.1f'cAg and a cyclic lateral displacement was applied in the upper part of the wall. The results indicate that the lateral strength is almost identical between both specimens. On the other hand, the lateral displacement capacity increased by 25% with the alternative detailing, but it was also able to maintain the 3 complete hysteretic cycles up to a drift of 2.5%, reaching longitudinal reinforcement fracture, while the base specimen only reached the first cycle of 2% with rapid degradation due to failure of the diagonal compression strut. The alternative design also allows 46% more energy dissipation than the conventional design. A model was used to capture the global response, correctly representing the observed behavior. A parametric study with the model, varying the reinforcement amount and aspect ratio, was performed, indicating that the effectiveness of the alternative detailing can double de drift capacity for the case with a low aspect ratio (1.1) and a large longitudinal steel amount (1% in the web, 5% in the boundary), which decreases with lower amounts of longitudinal reinforcement and with the increment of aspect ratio, indicating that the alternative detailing approach is reasonable for walls with an aspect ratio up to 2, especially if the amount of longitudinal reinforcement is high.