Performance of masonry infill walls in reinforced concrete frame buildings in recent earthquakes

Reinforced concrete (RC) frame structural system is widely used for housing and commercial construction in urban areas around the world. Exterior and interior partitions are in the form of masonry infills, which are usually constructed using solid clay bricks or multi-perforated clay blocks. Although masonry infills influence the strength and stiffness of a structure subjected to earthquake ground shaking, they are often disregarded in numerical models used for seismic analysis and design of these structures. Numerous RC frame structures with masonry infills experienced damage and/or collapse in past earthquakes, including the M 7.6 Izmit, Turkey (1999); M 7.7 Bhuj, India (2001); M 6.8 Boumerdes, Algeria (2003); and M 7.8 Gorkha, Nepal (2015). In most cases, RC buildings did not experience major structural damage but masonry infills experienced damage or failure.