ON THE SEISMIC RESPONSE OF MASONRY INFILLED RC FRAMES

Although it is widely accepted that the interaction between masonry infill and structural members significantly affects the seismic response of reinforced concrete (RC) frames, such an interaction is generally neglected in current design-oriented seismic analyses of structures. The issue of modelling masonry infill is even more relevant in the case of seismic analysis of existing structures, as they can significantly modify both lateral strength and stiffness. As a matter of principle, accurate modelling of infill should be carried out by adopting nonlinear 2D elements. However, several design-oriented proposals are currently available in both scientific literature and engineering practice to model masonry infill by defining equivalent (nonlinear) strut elements. This paper demonstrates the OpenSEES capabilities in implementing the such models in nonlinear static and dynamic analyses