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The paper is mainly focused on the investigation of the seismic response of reinforced concrete frames with masonry infills. Numerical results obtained with a strut model built in ETABS 2016 software are compared with the experimental results obtained on a full-size model. Tests were conducted in 2018, at the Technical University of Civil Engineering of Bucharest, on a reinforced concrete frame with masonry infills and on a bare reinforced concrete frame under compressive and shear loading. A static pushover analysis method was selected, and results were fairly compatible, even though some differences in the initial stiffness, as well as in the post yielding stage, were observed between numerical and experimental results. The model is presented, proposing a simple engineering method to be used in calculations.

Timber framed masonry houses represent a traditional type of house that can be found in many countries in the world, having small differences in details though. In Romania, this type of house is spread around the Vrancea seismic source, but not limited to that area. Until now, no studies were done on the Romanian timber framed masonry houses in terms of ambient vibration testing and analysis. This paper presents the first study of this kind, conducted on a house with timber frames and masonry infills, which is located in the National Village Museum, namely representing Sarbova area, Timiş County. Ambient vibration tests were done using velocity sensors, and thus determining the modal frequencies, and a simplified analytical study was further conducted leading to similar results as the experiment.

Structures with timber framed masonry represent a special typology that is frequently found in Europe and other countries of the world. They are traditional buildings, non-engineered, which showed an unexpected redundancy during earthquakes where reinforced concrete buildings (improperly constructed) collapsed. In the paper, aspects regarding the interaction between timber elements and masonry are mainly addressed, that were observed both in experimental studies, but also in the in situ seismic behavior of this type of structure during important earthquakes.