An investigation on the effect of number of stories on lateral behaviour of RC frame with masonry infill wall

Abstract

ABSTRACT Masonry infills, due to considerable stiffness content, may play a crucial role in the lateral behaviour of the RC frames. Lateral behaviour of masonry infill frames is strongly influenced by material properties, masonry dimensions, aspect ratio, and story numbers. In this study, the effects of the number of stories on the interaction between masonry infill and RC frame are evaluated. To this purpose, a half-scaled single-bay, single-story RC frame was built with the most common material inside the country and tested under the cyclic loading. Thereafter, numerical modelling of the experimental specimen is performed. After validating the authenticity of numerical modelling by the consequence of experimental results, numerical models expanded in RC frames with different story numbers. Simplified micro modelling method employed for numerical modelling. The results indicate that increasing the number of story more than two stories will reduce the impact of the presence of masonry infill wall on the lateral behaviour of reinforced concrete frames.