The Over-Strength Coefficient of Masonry-Infilled RC Frame Structures under Bidirectional Ground Motions

The over-strength coefficient is one of the key factors for the seismic safety of a structure. For RC frames, the infill wall may improve the lateral bearing capacity, while the seismic demand increases as well, which leads to the unexpected seismic performance of an infilled RC frame in past earthquakes. Therefore, it is necessary to systematically study the over-strength effect of the infilled RC frames from the point of seismic capacity and demand. In this paper, 36 RC frame structures with/without infill walls are designed, and the corresponding finite element modelings, considering the in-plane and out-of-plane performance coupling effect of infill walls, are established to conduct incremental dynamic analyses (IDA). The seismic capacity values of over-strength coefficients are calculated, utilizing the IDA results under bidirectional ground motions. The effects of seismic precautionary intensity and number of stories on the over-strength coefficient of the RC frame with/without infill walls are discussed. The over-strength coefficient capacity value of the infilled frame is apparently higher than that of the bare frame, due to the contribution of infill walls. However, the seismic demand analysis of the over-strength coefficient shows that the capacity–demand ratio of masonry-infilled RC frame structures is greatly reduced, especially for the bottom soft-story infilled frame.

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