An experimental study on the effects of anchor rods on infill walled frame systems

The issue of reinforcement through infill wall addition to hollow frame systems and reinforced infill walls has in recent years increasingly attracted the attention of researchers. The success of reinforcement technique is assessed by the sufficiency of the connectivity between the infill walls and the existing frame. In this reinforcement technique, the connectivity between the infill wall and the frame is commonly maintained by anchor rods.For this study, experiments were held in order to explore the contribution of anchor rods, which sustain the connectivity between the frame and the infill wall, to the infill walled frame systems. The main parameter of this study is the effect of the anchor rods that sustain the connectivity on the infill walls frame systems. An experiment program and testing apparatus have been developed for this purpose. In the experimental study, ¼ scaled, single-floor, single-span infill walled frame system has been the focus of study. In the infill walled frame system, while the infill wall material is made of cast-in-place concrete, the frame chosen is steel profile and reinforced concrete frame. Connection between the infill walls and the frame is maintained by steel anchor rods.The experiment program has been carried out as a damage-controlled one; the loading program has been conducted as increasing to a pre-specified damage rate; and when the pre-specified damage rate was reached, the experiment was finalized. The pre-specified damage rate is accepted as the crack load in this study.The study puts forward that the anchor rods that are placed in the system generally increase the capacity of energy absorption and preliminary rigidity in the infill walled frame systems.In the systems without anchor rods, cants/filling crash was observed in the corners on which loading was applied and filling dispersion was observed in the free corners. In the systems with anchor rods, these results were replaced by tension cracks. Depending on this observation, this study concludes that anchor rods considerably improve the system behaviors.