Seismic Performance Evaluation of Masonry Infilled Reinforced Concrete Buildings Utilizing Verified Masonry Properties in Applied Element Method

Abstract

Present study aims on evaluating the seismic performances of existing Masonry Infilled Reinforced Concrete (MIRC) buildings commonly found in many South and Southeast Asian countries utilizing appropriate masonry properties in Applied Element Method (AEM) models. First, masonry constituents and masonry composite properties were deter-mined for different masonry meshes through extensive parametric studies verified through the experimental results of masonry prisms under uniaxial compression and half scaled masonry infilled RC frames under in-plane cyclic load. Next, the established infill properties were utilized for time history dynamic analysis of an existing 8-storied MIRC building for different AEM models including soft story, retrofitted soft story, infills in all floors and bare RC frames ne-glecting stiffness contribution of infills. The analytical results revealed: 1) the unpredicted soft story column failure compared to the similar bare RC frame, 2) the inability of infills to improve the seismic performance of the surrounding RC frames, 3) the effectiveness of steel plate jacketing for preventing soft story failure and, 4) the effect of the exist-ence of overhead water tanks on the alteration of seismic behavior of RC buildings.