A Correction Factor Proposal for the Determination of Nonlinear Behavior of Structural Frame

Abstract

The contribution of masonry infill frames to the lateral resistance of the structural frame is mostly neglected while designing the building structures. However, it is already shown in the literature that the masonry infill wall can have a positive or negative contribution by enhancing the stiffness of the infilled frame in most cases. The majority of research (either analytical or experimental) that already took a place in the literature focused on mechanical behavior of masonry-infilled single frames (one story and one bay). The lateral load carrying capacity of a single masonry infill wall in multistory structural frames that have multiple bays have not been deeply investigated. For such investigation, a three-story structural frame that has three bays is taken into the consideration in this study. The behavior of masonry infill walls at different locations are investigated for various neighboring conditions. It is observed that the resistance of a single masonry wall varies as the neighbor wall situation change and as the location of the wall in the frame changes. By using the numerical analyses results, an empirical correction factor is proposed for the equivalent compression strut stiffness of masonry infill wall that regards the location and neighboring conditions. It can be concluded that the proposed correction factor for equivalent compression strut models brings the estimation of the nonlinear behavior for whole structural frame to a safer level.