EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF SEISMIC PERFORMANCE OF REINFORCED BRICK MASONRY INFILLED REINFORCED CONCRETE FRAMES WITH A CENTRAL OPENING

This paper discusses the experimental results for defining the seismic performance of the brick masonry infilled reinforced concrete (RC) frame with a central opening under lateral static reversed cyclic loading. The influence of the presence of the rebar reinforcements on the opening interface to the masonry is compared to the opening without rebar reinforcement. In this study, six of 1/4 scale-down of single-story singlebay RC frame specimens have been constructed and tested. These specimens included one bare RC frame, one unreinforced brick masonry infilled RC frame, two unreinforced brick masonry infilled RC frames with a central opening and two brick masonry infilled RC frames with a central opening embedded with 2Ø6 horizontal steel reinforcements above and below of the opening. The ratios of opening size to the panel area of the infilled specimens were 25% and 40%. The experimental results confirm that the existence of the opening reduces the stiffness, the lateral strength and energy dissipation of the RC infilled frame system. However, the infilled frames with 25% and 40% opening ratios show better performance compare to bare frame specimen. Although the strengthening by using embedded rebars does not significantly increase the performance of the RC frame system, the brick infill with horizontal reinforcements installed above and below the opening was verified to resist large deformation of masonry infill in out of plane direction.