NEES "Research to Practice" Webinar "Assessment of Seismic Performance of Masonry-Infilled Reinforced Concrete Frames"

“Assessment of Seismic Performance of Masonry-Infilled Reinforced Concrete Frames” is the sixth in a series of Research to Practice webinars co-produced by the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) and the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) is Tuesday, May 22, 2012.  

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There is no cost to attend this webinar. To register go to https://nees.org/webinar.  

Reinforced concrete and steel frame structures sometimes include unreinforced masonry infill walls as interior and exterior partitions. Such construction can be found in many old buildings in the western United States, such as pre-1930’s buildings in California, and is still being used for newer buildings in the midwestern and eastern parts of the country. Even though unreinforced masonry infill walls are usually considered as non-structural elements, they interact with the bounding frames when subjected to earthquake loads. This interaction may result in unintended failure mechanisms, such as shear failures of reinforced concrete (RC) columns and the crushing of the masonry infill. The seismic performance and safety of infilled frames have received much attention because of their mixed performance in past earthquakes. The lateral load resistance of an infilled frame highly depends on the frame-wall interaction and the specific failure mechanism that may result. This presents a major challenge for the performance assessment of these structures.

A research project was sponsored under the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) program of NSF to develop reliable analytical methods for assessing the performance of masonry-infilled RC frames, and also effective retrofit methods for enhancing the seismic safety of these buildings. The analytical and retrofit methods were validated with quasi-static and large-scale shake-table tests. The research was a collaborative effort of UC-San Diego, the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Stanford University. This webinar will provide a brief overview of the research project, and present the simplified as well as refined analytical methods that were developed in this project. Current efforts to improve the performance assessment methods in ASCE 41 for this type of structures will be discussed. The presentation will be given by Professor P.B. Shing and Dr. Ioannis Koutromanos of UC-San Diego, and Professor Andreas Stavridis of the University of Texas, Arlington.