Research on Improved Equivalent Diagonal Strut Model for Masonry‐Infilled RC Frame with Flexible Connection

Abstract

The reinforced concrete (RC) frame with masonry infill wall is one of the most common structural systems in many countries. It has been widely recognized that the infill wall has significant effects on the seismic performance of RC frame structure. During the Wenchuan earthquake (China 2008), a lot of infilled RC frame structures suffered serious damages due to the detrimental effects brought about by the infill wall rigidly connected to the surrounding frame. In order to solve this problem, flexible connection, introduced by Chinese designers, is recommended by the updated Chinese seismic design code, because of its effect to reduce the unfavorable interaction between infill wall and frame. Although infilled RC frame structure with flexible connection has a lot of advantages, but because of the lack of research, this structure type is seldom used in practical engineering. Therefore, it is of great significance to scientifically investigate and analyze the effects of flexible connection on structure behaviors of infilled RC frame. In this study, a macrofinite element numerical simulation method for infilled RC frame with flexible connection was investigated. Firstly, the effects of connection between infill wall and surrounding frame on in-plane behaviors of infilled RC frame were discussed. Secondly, based on deeply studying the equivalent diagonal strut models for infilled RC frame with rigid connection, an improved equivalent diagonal strut model for infilled RC frame with flexible connection was proposed. Employed with inversion analysis theory, the parameter in the proposed model was estimated through artificial fish swarm algorithm. Finally, applied with the existing experiment results, a case study was conducted to verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed model.

Parametric study on the collapse probability of modern reinforced concrete frames with infills

“…There have been studies using one (Huang et al, 2020; Stafford Smith and Carter, 1969), two (Burton and Deierlein, 2014; Crisafulli and Carr, 2007), three (Brodsky, 2021), or more (Thiruvengadam, 1985) struts in each direction. Yang et al (2019) propose an improved equivalent diagonal strut model to simulate the behavior of a novel flexible infill-frame connection. Bose et al (2019) propose a model using single equivalent struts in each direction.…”

Seismic Analysis of Multistoried Open Ground Story Building With Diagonal Strut and Shear Walls

“…Buildings with OGS are commonly developed in urban locations in a fast-growing country like India, where parking space on the ground floor is in high demand [1][2][3]. Earthquake calamities will never be eradicated by OGS building engineering technologies [4,5].…”

“…Because they are subjected to substantial inelastic deformations at their ends, coupling beams must have a high ductility. The stiffening effect of the infill panel on the frame is frequently taken into account since it can significantly modify the behavior of the building in the elastic range [5,[7][8][9].…”