Investigation on the seismic performance of the masonry infill wall with damping layer joint

Abstract

Aimed at improving the seismic performance of the traditional masonry infill wall (MIW), an innovative configuration called Damped Masonry Infill Wall (DMIW) is developed through subdividing the MIW horizontally and introducing damping layer joint (DLJ) into the wall. In order to verify the feasibility and the seismic performance of DMIW, the optimized material used as DLJ was determined among four types of materials via the shear-hysteretic test firstly. Then, a quasi-static test was performed to investigate the seismic performance of 1:2 scaled RC frame specimens with DMIW and traditional MIW, in terms of damage pattern, seismic parameters, shear deformation characteristics of DLJ. The results show that the modified asphalt waterproof (MAW) product, APF-500 (also labelled No.1 MAW in this study), is the optimized material used for DLJ among other three tested material. The expected working mechanism of DMIW that the shear deformation of the wall concentrates in the DLJs is able to be realized by using the optimized DLJ material. Also, it proves that DMIW is capable of presenting a prominent reduction of damage level and significant decrease of the lateral force and stiffness. It is anticipated that the detrimental effect of traditional MIW on the seismic performance of the frame structure can be avoided by adopting DMIW. Furthermore, a fitted equation of the relationship between the maximum shear deformation demand of DLJ and the lateral deformation of the RC frame is developed for determining the minimum thickness of DLJ in the case where DMIW has three masonry units.