• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.329-348
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• 2019

The main objective of this experimental research was to investigate the Seismic performance of reinforced concrete frames infilled with perforated clay brick masonry wall of a type commonly used in Algeria. Four one story-one bay reinforced concrete infilled frames of half scale of an existing building were tested at the National Earthquake Engineering Research Center Laboratory, CGS, Algeria. The experiments were carried out under a combined constant vertical and reversed cyclic lateral loading simulating seismic action. This experimental program was performed in order to evaluate the effect and the contribution of the infill masonry wall on the lateral stiffness, strength, ductility and failure mode of the reinforced concrete frames. Numerical models were developed and calibrated using the experimental results to match the load-drift envelope curve of the considered specimens. These models were used as a bench mark to assess the effect of normalized axial load on the seismic performance of the RC frames with and without masonry panels. The main experimental and analytical results are presented in this paper.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.699-712
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• 2017

This study evaluates the effectiveness of a newly developed retrofitting scheme for masonry-infilled non-ductile RC frames experimentally and by numerical simulation. The technique focuses on modifying the load path and yield mechanism of the infilled frame to enhance the ductility. A vertical gap between the column and the infill panel was strategically introduced so that no shear force is directly transferred to the column. Steel brackets and small vertical steel members were then provided to transfer the interactive forces between the RC frame and the masonry panel. Wire meshes and high-strength mortar were provided in areas with high stress concentration and in the panel to further reduce damage. Cyclic load tests on a large-scale specimen of a single-bay, single-story, masonry-infilled RC frame were carried out. Based on those tests, the retrofitting scheme provided significant improvement, especially in terms of ductility enhancement. All retrofitted specimens clearly exhibited much better performances than those stipulated in building standards for masonry-infilled structures. A macro-scale computer model based on a diagonal-strut concept was also developed for predicting the global behavior of the retrofitted masonry-infilled frames. This proposed model was effectively used to evaluate the global responses of the test specimens with acceptable accuracy, especially in terms of strength, stiffness and damage condition.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.489-499
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• 2024

Infill masonry walls are vulnerable to lateral loads, including seismic, wind, and concentrated push loads. Various strengthening metal fittings have been proposed to improve lateral load resistance, particularly against seismic loads. This study introduces the use of post-compressed wedges as a novel reinforcement method for infill masonry walls to enhance lateral load resistance. The resistance of the infill masonry wall against lateral-concentrated push loads was assessed using an out-of-plane push-over test on specimens sized 2,300×2,410×190 mm³. The presence or absence of wedges and wedge spacing were set as variables. The push-over test results showed that both the unreinforced specimen and the specimen reinforced with 300 mm spaced wedges toppled, while the specimen reinforced with 100 mm spaced wedges remained upright. Peak loads were measured to be 0.74, 29.77, and 5.88 kN for unreinforced specimens and specimens reinforced with 100 mm and 300 mm spaced wedges, respectively. Notably, a tighter reinforcement spacing yielded a similar strength, as expected, which was attributed to the increased friction force between the masonry wall and steel frame. The W-series specimens exhibited a trend comparable to that of the displacement ductility ratio. Overall, the findings validate that post-compressed wedges improve the out-of-plane strength of infill masonry walls.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.519-533
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• 2024

Many materials including cementitious concrete-type materials undergo material property changes during high-rate loading. There is a wealth of research regarding this phenomenon for concrete in compression and tension. However, there is minimal knowledge about how mortar material used in concrete masonry unit (CMU) construction behaves in high-rate shear loading. A series of experiments was conducted to examine the bond strength of mortar bonded to CMU units under high-rate shear loading. A novel experimental setup using a shock tube and dynamic ram were used to load specially constructed shear triplets in a double lap shear configuration with no pre-compression. The Finite Element Method was leveraged in conjunction with data from the experimental investigation to establish if the shear bond between concrete masonry units and mortar exhibits any rate dependency. An increase in shear bond strength was observed when loaded at a high strain rate. This data indicates that the CMU-mortar bond exhibits a rate dependent strength change and illustrates the need for further study of the CMU-mortar interface characteristics at high strain rates.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.137-147
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• 2022

This study investigated the seismic performance of reinforced concrete (RC) wall-slab frames with masonry infills. Four RC wall-slab frames with or without masonry infill were tested under cyclic loading. The RC frames were composed of in-plane and out-of-plane walls and top and bottom slabs. For masonry infill walls, cement bricks were stacked applying mortar paste only at the bed joints, and, at the top, a gap of 50 mm was intentionally left between the masonry wall and top RC slab. Both sides of the masonry walls were finished by applying ordinary or fiber-reinforced mortars. The tests showed that despite the gap on top of the masonry walls, the strength and stiffness of the infilled frames were significantly increased and were different depending on the direction of loading and the finishing mortars. During repeated loading, the masonry walls underwent horizontal and diagonal cracking and corner crushing/spalling, showing a rocking mode inside the RC wall-slab frame. Interestingly, this rocking mode delayed loss of strength, and as a result, the ductility of the infilled frames increased to the same level as the bare frame. The interaction of masonry infill and adjacent RC walls, depending on the direction of loading, was further investigated based on test observations.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.37-45
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• 2021

This paper is a basic study to evaluate the possibility of earthquake-resistant reinforcement by reinforcing engineered cementitious composite in masonry members. In order to examine the performance according to the fiber mixing rate of the engineered cementitious composite, a test specimen was prepared according to the formulation design, and flow ability, compressive strength, flexural strength, length change rate, and direct tensile strain were measured. In addition, non-reinforced masonry members, masonry members reinforced with engineered cementitious composite, and masonry members in which glass fibers and wire mesh were separately reinforced with engineered cementitious composites were manufactured, and flexural strength and maximum displacement were measured. All specimens reinforced with engineered cementitious composite showed more than 16 times the effect of maximal strength compared to that of no reinforcement, and as a result of examining the crack shape, the energy dissipation ability was excellent, confirming the possibility of seismic reinforcement.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.197-207
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• 2013

The seismic performance of school buildings has been a matter of common interest socially and academically. The structural system of the school buildings is representative of the domestic low-rise reinforced concrete moment resisting frames, which apply extensively infills in their masonry walls. The masonry infilled walls are divided into full masonry infill in the transverse direction and partial masonry infill in the longitudinal direction. The masonry infilled walls are usually not included in structural analysis during the design process, but affect significantly the seismic performance because they behave with surrounding frames simultaneously during earthquakes. Many researchers have studied the effect of the masonry infilled walls, but several issues have been missed such as the increase of asymmetry by adding the full masonry infill, the size of the mean strength of the full masonry infill, and short column effect by the partial masonry infill. The issues were analytically investigated and the results showed that they should be checked at least by nonlinear pushover analysis in the seismic performance evaluation process. The results also confirm the weakness of the guideline of Korean Educational Development Institute where the seismic performance is basically assessed without structural analysis.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.57 no.4
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• pp.641-656
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• 2016

Reinforced concrete frame buildings with masonry infill walls are one of the most popular structural systems in the world. In most cases, the effects of masonry infill walls are not considered in structural models. The results of earthquakes show that infill walls have a significant effect on the seismic response of buildings. In some cases, the buildings collapsed as a result of the formation of a soft story. This study developed a simple method, called corner opening, by replacing the corner of infill walls with a very flexible material to enhance the structural behavior of walls. To evaluate the proposed method a series of experiments were conducted on masonry infill wall and reinforced concrete frames with and without corner openings. Two 1:4 scale masonry infill walls with and without corner openings were tested under diagonal tension or shear strength and two RC frames with full infill walls and with corner opening infill walls were tested under monotonic horizontal loading up to a drift level of 2.5%. The experimental results revealed that the proposed method reduced the strength of infill wall specimens but considerably enhanced the ductility of infill wall specimens in the diagonal tension test. Moreover, the corner opening in infill walls prevented the slid shear failure of the infill wall in RC frames with infill walls.

• KCI Concrete Journal
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.153-164
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• 1999

The objective of this research is to observe the actual response of a low-rise nonseismic moment-resisting masonry-infilled reinforced concrete frame subjected to varied levels of earthquake ground motions. The reduction scale for the model was determined as 1 : 5 considering the capacity of the shaking table to be used. This model was, then, subjected to the shaking table motions simulating Taft N2IE component earthquake ground motion, whose peak ground acceleration(PGA) was modified to 0.12g, 0.2g, 0.3g, and 0.4g. The g1oba1 behavior and failure mode were observed. The lateral accelerations and displacements at each story and local deformations at the critical portions of the structure were measured. Before and after each earthquake simulation test, free vibration tests and white noise tests were performed to find the changes in the natural period of the model. When the results of the masonry-infilled frame are compared with those of the bare frame, it can be recognized that masonry infills contribute to the large increase in the stiffness and strength of the g1oba1 structure whereas it also accompanies the increase of earthquake inertia forces. However, it is judged that masonry infills may be beneficial to the performance of the structure since the rate of increase in strength appears to be greater than that of the induced earthquake inertia forces.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.379-390
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• 2020

Four full-scaled partially confined and unconfined masonry panels were tested with monotonic lateral loads. To study the effects of vertical force and boundary columns, two specimens with no boundary columns were subjected to different vertical forces, while two wing-wall specimens had the column placed eccentrically and in the middle, respectively. The specimens with no boundary columns exhibited ductile rocking behavior, where the lateral strength increased with increasing vertical compression. The wing-wall specimens with columns behaved as strut-and-tie systems. The column-panel interaction resulted in greater strength, lower deformation capacity and differences in failure modes. A comparison with analytical models showed that rocking strength can be accurately estimated using vertical force and the panel aspect ratio for panels with no boundary columns. The estimation for lateral strength on the basis of a panel section area indicated scattered error for wing-wall specimens.