Analytical and experimental studies on infilled RC frames

Abstract

Although hollow brick infills, widely used as partition walls, are considered as non-structural members, experimental studies revealed that hollow brick infills have favourable effects on strength and stiffness of structures. In this work, analytical studies were conducted to investigate the hollow brick infill behaviour, in which infills were modeled by diagonal compression struts. Results were compared with experimental ones obtained from tests of one-bay, one or two story reinforced concrete (RC) frames, tested under both vertical and reversed-cyclic lateral loads simulating earthquake. Test frames have intentionally been constructed poorly to reflect the most common deficiencies encountered in Turkey such as strong beam-weak column connections, insufficient confinement, low-grade concrete, poor workmanship and insufficient lap-splice length. Experimental studies shows that hollow brick infills increased both strength and stiffness of RC frames. Analytical studies conducted, shows that hollow brick infills could adequately be modeled by diagonal compression struts.