Abstract—The seismic performance of a masonry in filled four-storey RC structure designed according to earthquake-resistant provisions was investigated through numerical analyses and the influence of masonry in fills and openings on the structural response was discussed. On the basis of experimental tests carried out at the JRC Elsa Laboratory, numerical models were developed in order to properly simulate the seismic response of the masonry in filled RC structure and a simplified assessment approach based on nonlinear static pushover analyses was applied. The presence of masonry in fills and openings considerably changed the distribution of damage throughout the structure. Due to the increase of stiffness provided by the in fills, the attainment of the different Limit States was anticipated in terms of drift in case of in filled structure with respect to the bare counterpart. According to the simplified assessment procedure, the in fluence of in fills on the seismic response of the ductile RC structure was beneficial, though a strength decrease was observed after the failure of in fills. A concentration of damage was registered at the first storey for high levels of seismic action, but the deformation capacity of the structure was large enough to accommodate the demand and a significant reduction of damage was registered compared to the bare structure.
Index Terms—Masonry in fills, nonlinear static analysis, RC structure, seismic performance.
Marco Valente is with the Department of Structural Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy (e-mail: valente@stru.polimi.it).
Cite: Marco Valente, "Seismic Performance Assessment of a Masonry In filled Ductile RC Structure," International Journal of Engineering and Technology vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 701-704, 2012.
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