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Structural Engineering and Mechanics
  Volume 57, Number 4, February25 2016 , pages 641-656
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12989/sem.2016.57.4.641
 


Experimental study of masonry infill reinforced concrete frames with and without corner openings
Hamid Reza Khoshnoud and Kadir Marsono

 
Abstract
    Reinforced concrete frame buildings with masonry infill walls are one of the most popular structural systems in the world. In most cases, the effects of masonry infill walls are not considered in structural models. The results of earthquakes show that infill walls have a significant effect on the seismic response of buildings. In some cases, the buildings collapsed as a result of the formation of a soft story. This study developed a simple method, called corner opening, by replacing the corner of infill walls with a very flexible material to enhance the structural behavior of walls. To evaluate the proposed method a series of experiments were conducted on masonry infill wall and reinforced concrete frames with and without corner openings. Two 1:4 scale masonry infill walls with and without corner openings were tested under diagonal tension or shear strength and two RC frames with full infill walls and with corner opening infill walls were tested under monotonic horizontal loading up to a drift level of 2.5%. The experimental results revealed that the proposed method reduced the strength of infill wall specimens but considerably enhanced the ductility of infill wall specimens in the diagonal tension test. Moreover, the corner opening in infill walls prevented the slid shear failure of the infill wall in RC frames with infill walls.
 
Key Words
    masonry infill wall; corner opening; reinforcement concrete frames; monotonic lateral load; experimental methods; earthquake engineering
 
Address
Hamid Reza Khoshnoud; Department of Civil Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Langroud Branch, Langroud, Iran
Kadir Marsono; Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Technology of Malaysia, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
 

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