Numerical Evaluation of the Behavior of Steel Frames with Gypsum Board Infill Walls

In this paper, the behavior of steel frames with gypsum board infill walls is studied through finite element simulation. For this purpose, a typical steel frame with infill wall which had been previously tested is considered as a benchmark model. The accuracy of a numerical model is verified by calibrating the results of the finite element simulation against those of a corresponding experimental specimen. In the next step, a parametric study is performed on four models in order to study the effects of gypsum board thickness, inclusion of fibers as reinforcement in the infill wall, and local strengthening of the peripheral regions of the infill wall. Each of these factors is related to considerable performance improvement such as strength and ductility of the models. It is observed that adding fibers to the infill wall leads to increase in the strength and ductility of the models up to 3.2 and 6.3 times, respectively. Doubling the thickness of the infill wall results in an increase of 6.7 and 3.3 times in strength and stiffness, respectively; however, this modification causes a significant decrease in the ductility of the infilled frames. Negligible improvement in strength and ductility is achieved through local strengthening of the peripheral regions of the infill walls, whereas it leads to a 30% increase in the stiffness of the models.

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