Experimental evaluation of the in-plane behaviour of masonry wall infilled RC frames

This study focuses on the in-plane behaviour of unreinforced masonry (URM) infill walls installed in reinforced concrete (RC) frames. Five 1/4-scale model frames were designed based on a prototype RC building with URM infill walls in Turkey. The experimental parameters were the layout of the URM infill (its presence or absence), number of spans (single or double), number of stories (single or double), and stacking pattern of the URM infill (horizontal or vertical). Static cyclic loading tests were conducted to investigate the lateral force resisting mechanisms in the in-plane direction, which were evaluated based on the strain data measured on blocks forming the infill walls. The results indicated the following: (1) The vertically stacked infill did not form a typical diagonal compressive strut and showed lower seismic performance than the horizontally stacked infill. (2) For the specimens with horizontally stacked infill, the one-story, two-bay specimen formed a diagonal compressive strut in each infill wall similar to that formed in the one-story, one-bay specimen, whereas a steeper compressive strut through both stories appeared in the two-story, one-bay specimen. To verify the above strut mechanisms in the horizontally stacked infill, the compressive struts in the specimens were quantitatively identified based on strain data recorded on the infill. The identified compressive struts indicated that single strut models were applicable to multi-bay infilled frames; however, the stress transfer across floors should be considered in multi-story frames.