Frictional energy dissipation and damping capacity of framed semi-intrlocking masonry infill panel

A new system for masonry infill panels is being developed in the Masonry Research Group at the University of Newcastle. It uses masonry panels made of dry stack semi-interlocking units capable of relative sliding in-plane of a wall and interlocked to prevent relative sliding out-ofplane of a wall. These new panels are suitable for both infill and confined masonry. The major objective for developing this new masonry system is to improve the earthquake performance and wind resistance of framed structures with masonry panels acting as energy dissipation devices (EDD). An experimental program is being carried out to evaluate the behaviour of different framed masonry panels. It was found in the initial testing program that new panels have significant energy dissipation capacity due to friction between masonry units. For example, a maximum damping ratio of 0.03 was calculated for a bare RC frame from hysteresis force-displacement curves. This was improved by infilling the frame with the dry stack masonry panel producing a new average damping ratio of 0.17. Theoretically, based on the coefficient of friction between contacting masonry units, this capacity could be improved even further. This paper describes the response of a prototype semi-interlocking panel to in-plane cycling with particular emphasis on the frictional energy dissipation and damping