A Study of the Response of Reinforced Concrete Frames with and without Masonry Infill Walls to Simulated Earthquakes

This study focuses on non-ductile reinforced concrete (RC) frames built outside current practices. These structures are quite vulnerable to collapse during earthquakes. One option to retrofit buildings with poorly detailed RC columns is to construct full-height masonry infill walls to provide additional means to resist loads caused by gravity and increase lateral stiffness resulting in a reduction in drift demand. On the other hand, infill can cause reductions in drift capacity that offset the benefits of reductions in drift demand. Given these two opposing effects, this investigation addresses the following question: are poorly detailed RC frames with masonry infill walls any safer than similar RC frames without infill walls?