Ground Motions and Structures - Earthquake Engineering for Structural Design - page 352

352 Earthquake Engineering for Structural Design

Reinforced concrete frame

Equivalent struts

Figure 8.50 Masonry infilled reinforced concrete frames (after Decanini et al, 2004,
Murty, 2004)

The masonry infilled reinforced concrete frames (Fig. 8.50a) is a system in which the
infilled masonry gives a remarkable contribution to the initial stiffness of reinforced
concrete frames, reducing the drift and the structural damage, especially for
serviceability limit state. Buildings containing masonry walls have normally a very
good earthquake performance. Their behavior is based on the formation of an
equivalent diagonal strut. So, the analysis of masonry infilled frames is similar to the
one of X-braced frames (Fig. 8.50b).
The panel infilled steel frames (Fig. 8.51a), where there are two main solutions for
panels: to use sandwich panels (Fig. 8.51b), or shear panels (Fig. 8.51c). Long used as
partition walls only, the sandwich panels are nowadays appreciated for their