Out-of-plane response of masonry infilled RC frames: effect of workmanship and opening

Publicado em "Brick and block masonry: trends, innovations and challenges. ISBN 978-1-138-02999-6Out-of-plane response of typical South European masonry infilled frames was investigated by testing three reduced scale specimens to investigate the effect of workmanship and presence of opening on the out-of-plane behaviour. The tests were performed considering an airbag to apply the uniform out-of-plane loading for each mass of the infill and by imposing pre-defined values of displacements in the out-of-plane direction in the control point taken at mid height and mid length of the masonry infill wall. Quasi-static cyclic testing was performed just in one direction to be able to monitor the propagation of the cracks and performance of the interfaces during out-of-plane loading. It was concluded that the workmanship is an important factor that may change the out-of-plane response of the specimen by changing the initial stiffness and lateral strength of the specimen. Another important contribution of the workmanship is the change of the collapse pattern of the infill by formation of twoway arching mechanism or one way arching mechanism. When the upper boundary condition of the infill in contact with RC frame is filled properly with mortar, two way arching mechanism was observed otherwise one-way horizontal arching mechanism was formed which exhibits lower out-of-plane resistance. The specimen with a central opening exhibits lower deformation capacity with respect to the reference wall but any decrease in its lateral strength was not recorded.FCT (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology), within ISISE, project UID/ECI/04029/2013Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology for the funding of the project RetroInf—Development of innovative solutions for seismic retrofitting of masonry infill walls (PTDC/ECM/122347/2010