1st Croatian Conference on Earthquake Engineering 1CroCEE 2021

The majority of multi-storey buildings worldwide are constructed as reinforced concrete frame structures with masonry infill walls. Whereas frames, unlike infill walls are considered load-bearing. Yet, infill walls contribute to the structure’s overall behaviour during seismic activity. Also, infill walls can impose hazard and safety issues due to Out-of-Plane instability. Consequently, this paper presents the results of experimental studies on reinforced concrete frames with unreinforced masonry infill walls, with and without openings. The study included six specimens: bare and fully infilled frame, while the others contained centric and eccentric door and window opening. The specimens were loaded in one direction by cyclic, quasi-static out-of-plane drift forces. Both drift driven tests and openings were rarely studied in the field of out-of-plane infilled walls behaviour. The experiments were monitored by two independent measuring systems, i.e. 3D optical (ARAMIS) and physical (linear variable differential and force transducers) systems. It was found that the infill wall did not contribute to the frame’s overall behaviour. Albeit, the infill walls accumulated a significant amount of damage, especially the ones with openings.