Title: Earthquake-proof system for masonry infills in RC frame structures

Authors: Marko Marinković; Christoph Butenweg

Addresses: Department of Engineering Mechanics and Theory of Structures, Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Belgrade, Bulevar kralja Aleksandra 73, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia ' CWE – Center for Wind and Earthquake Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, Mies-van-der Rohe-Straße 1, 52074 Aachen, Germany

Abstract: The use of masonry infill walls in RC frame structures is common in many countries, even in seismically active areas, where the observations made after strong earthquakes have shown that masonry infills significantly modify the dynamic behaviour of the structure, thus causing total collapses of buildings and loss of human lives. The innovative system called Innovative Decoupled Infill System (INODIS) was developed with the aim to improve the behaviour of infilled RC frames by decoupling the frame and the masonry infill. Description of the system with the installation steps is given with the experimental tests showing that INODIS system highly reduces the activation of infills, thus enables reaching high in-plane drifts without having any damage and at the same time provides stable and reliable connection in out-of-plane direction. Also, the micro model showed that INODIS system improves the behaviour of AAC masonry infills by reducing the level of damage in the walls and postponing infill activation to higher drift levels.

Keywords: in-plane; out-of-plane; experimental tests; masonry infills; innovative decoupled infill system; INODIS; simultaneous loading; numerical models; decoupling connection; AAC masonry; RC frames; earthquake-proof system.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMRI.2020.106328

International Journal of Masonry Research and Innovation, 2020 Vol.5 No.2, pp.185 - 208

Received: 17 Nov 2018
Accepted: 22 Jun 2019
Published online: 02 Apr 2020 *

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