MASONRY INFILL WALLS: AN EFFECTIVE ALTERNATIVE FOR SEISMIC STRENGTHENING OF LOW-RISE REINFORCED CONCRETE BUILDING STRUCTURES

Masonry infill walls are widely used as partitions worldwide. Field evidence has shown that continuous infill masonry walls can help reduce the vulnerability of a reinforced concrete structure. In order to test this hypothesis, a full-scale three-story flat-plate structure was strengthened with infill brick walls and tested under displacement reversals. The results of this test were compared with results from a previous experiment in which the same building was tested without infill walls. In the initial test, the structure experienced a punching shear failure at a slab-column connection. The addition of infill walls helped to prevent slab collapse and increased the stiffness and strength of the structure. The measured drift capacity of the repaired structure was 1.5 %. A numerical model of the test structure was calibrated to match experimental results. Numerical simulations of the response of the strengthened structure to several scaled ground motion records suggest that the measured drift capacity would not be reached during strong ground motion