Seismic Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Frame Structures with and without Masonry Infill Walls

Brick walls are often used as an infill element serving as partitions or as cladding in structure frames. In structural frame design method, infill walls are usually considered to be inert “nonstructural” elements and known for affecting on strength, stiffness and post peak behavior of the structure. The structure is assumed to carry the transverse loads by the frame elements resisting primarily in flexure. Often action of infill wall in frame analysis is ignored in the seismic area which is not on safe side and creates a major hazard during earthquake. RC frames having brick walls are a universal practice in countries like Turkey, where the region is prone to seismic activity. The structures in high seismic areas are greatly vulnerable to severe damages. Apart from the gravity load structure has to withstand to lateral load which may develop high stresses. Nowadays reinforced concrete frames are most common in building construction use around the world. In this study, all the case studies are design under Turkish Building Codes TS 500 and Turkish Earthquake Codes TEC2007. An extensive analysis of typical RC building configurations, including brick masonry infill walls arranged either regularly or irregularly (creating soft-storeys) has been carried out. Pushover analysis method was carried out in SeismoStruct. Each case was compared to find out the performance of brick wall on RC frame.