Effect of masonry infill wall with opening on reinforced concrete frame due to seismic loading: parametric study

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effect of masonry infill wall with opening on reinforced concrete frame due to seismic loading under the influence of storey number and panel aspect ratio. For this purpose, a total of 36 building frames including bare frame and infill frame with door and window opening were analysed by equivalent static analysis (ESA) and response spectrum analysis (RSA) using STAAD.Pro software. The seismic load was applied as lateral loading and then sway, storey-wise deflection, inter-storey drift, bending moment and shear of those frames were evaluated and compared. Results of the parametric study indicated that ESA exhibited higher results compared to RSA for a conventional design of building frames as the bare frame. The bending moment in infill frames with opening concentrated at the top of the ground floor level for RSA whereas it was at the bottom of the ground floor for bare frames. The maximum moment and shear in the infill frames with opening decreased 12%-50% and 2%-47% respectively compared to the bare frame due to the interaction of infill panels with the frame elements.