Reinforced Concrete-Gap-Element against earthquake - experimental and numerical study

A large proportion of damage as well as loss of health and life in earthquake case occurs due to failures on masonry structures. Unreinforced masonry, as common in many countries, naturally has limited resistance to earthquakes because tensile stresses and forces cannot be absorbed as in reinforced concrete and steel structures. For this reason, attempts have been made using various methods to improve bearing capacities of masonry in the case of earthquake. One of these attempts is the use of a reinforced concrete beam with corner notches (Concrete-Gap-Element). In practice, the Gap-Element can be easily connected with use of normal mortar on the concrete slab. The ease of manufacture and application of the Concrete-Gap-Element in masonry walls provide a cheap and simple method for improving the seismic capacity of a masonry building in practice.
In this article it will be shown how masonry walls with arranged notched reinforced concrete beams behave as a typical bearing wall in a masonry building. A special pseudo-dynamic algorithm was developed in order to simulate the boundary conditions of the masonry wall in a building and during an earthquake closely to reality.