Influence of masonry infill walls on the seismic performance of reinforced concrete frames

Abstract

The seismic behaviour of a very common building typology in Spain, reinforced concrete (RC) frame buildings, is investigated. Usually, divisions in these buildings are made by means of non-bearing masonry infill walls. It is the traditional practice not to consider the contribution of these in the resisting mechanism, especially for gravitational loads. However, under lateral loading, such as wind or earthquake, the existence or not of these infill walls may significantly influence the structural response. The objective of this paper is to know the influence of masonry infill walls in the seismic response of RC buildings. Based on structural details of a series of real drawings, an 8 stories reference building was defined and by means of non-linear static analysis, structural response and capacity with and without infill walls are evaluated. The results shown that infill walls are determinant in the structural behaviour against lateral loads, both in terms of stiffness and resistance.