Seismic Performance of a Three-Story Reinforced Concrete Building with Masonry Infill Walls and Friction Base Support

The stiffness of masonry infill walls is commonly neglected in design practice of
Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures. In fact, the stiffness of masonry infill wall may significantly
influence seismic performance and dynamic behavior of RC buildings. In this research, influence
of masonry infill walls to the structural performance of a three-story RC frame is investigated. In
addition, possible application of friction-based support is also studied. Full 3D non-linear time
history analysis is conducted to observe the behavior of the structure under two-directional ground
motion. In the analysis, any failed elements are removed subsequently from the model to avoid
numerical analysis problem. The result shows that the masonry infill walls can significantly
influence the structural behavior of RC structure. Inappropriate placement of masonry wall may
lead the building undergo soft-story mechanism. It is also found that the use of friction-based
support can effectively improve the seismic performance of the building.