NEES “Research to Practice” Webinar “Assessment of Seismic Performance of Masonry-Infilled Reinforced Concrete Frames”
co-produced by the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES)
and the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) is Tuesday,
May 22, 2012.
concrete and steel frame structures sometimes include unreinforced
masonry infill walls as interior and exterior partitions. Such
construction can be found in many old buildings in the western United
States, such as pre-1930’s buildings in California, and is still being
used for newer buildings in the midwestern and eastern parts of the
country. Even though unreinforced masonry infill walls are usually
considered as non-structural elements, they interact with the bounding
frames when subjected to earthquake loads. This interaction may result
in unintended failure mechanisms, such as shear failures of reinforced
concrete (RC) columns and the crushing of the masonry infill. The
seismic performance and safety of infilled frames have received much
attention because of their mixed performance in past earthquakes. The
lateral load resistance of an infilled frame highly depends on the
frame-wall interaction and the specific failure mechanism that may
result. This presents a major challenge for the performance assessment
of these structures.
A
research project was sponsored under the Network for Earthquake
Engineering Simulation (NEES) program of NSF to develop reliable
analytical methods for assessing the performance of masonry-infilled RC
frames, and also effective retrofit methods for enhancing the seismic
safety of these buildings. The analytical and retrofit methods were
validated with quasi-static and large-scale shake-table tests. The
research was a collaborative effort of UC-San Diego, the University of
Colorado, Boulder, and Stanford University. This webinar will provide a
brief overview of the research project, and present the simplified as
well as refined analytical methods that were developed in this project.
Current efforts to improve the performance assessment methods in ASCE 41
for this type of structures will be discussed. The presentation will be
given by Professor P.B. Shing and Dr. Ioannis Koutromanos of UC-San
Diego, and Professor Andreas Stavridis of the University of Texas,
Arlington.
