SEISMIC EVALUATION OF RC FRAMED BUILDINGS WITH INFLUENCE OF MASONRY INFILL PANEL

Abstract

RC framed buildings are generally designed without considering the structural action of masonry infill walls present. These walls are widely used as partitio ns and considered as non-structural elements. But they affe ct both the structural and non-structural performance of the RC buildings during earthquakes. RC framed building with open first storey is known as soft storey, which performs poorly during earthquakes. A similar soft storey effect can also appear below plinth, when the ground material has removed during excavation and refilled later. To observe th e effect of masonry infill panel, it is modeled as an equivalen t diagonal strut. In order to study these six RC framed building s with brick masonry infill were designed for the same seis mic hazard. In the present paper an investigation has b een made to study the behavior of RC frames with various arrangement of infill when subjected to earthquake loading. The res ults of bare frame, frame with infill, soft ground floor, so ft basement and infill in swastika pattern in ground floor are c ompared and conclusions are made. It is observed that, prov iding infill below plinth and in swastika pattern in the ground fl oor improves earthquake resistant behavior of the struc ture when compared to soft basement.