The effect of openings in URM infills on the seismic resilience of a reinforced concrete building

Abstract

In high seismicity regions, the use of unreinforced masonry (URM) infills in reinforced concrete buildings is massive. In most of them, the openings in URM infills due to architectural requirements cause a variation in lateral stiffness which, in turn, alters the dynamic characteristics of the building. Although much research was developed about the effects of openings on the building performance, studies on assessing functionality reduction and resilience of a building in post-disaster scenarios are very few. This paper gives a contribution to that issue by performing and interpreting a parametric analysis which considers five models of a low-rise R.C. building with different percentages of infills openings. The results are expressed as extreme damage probability percentage, damage loss ratio and loss of resilience. The results show that the case with percentage of opening in in the outer and inner infill walls respectively (referred to as IF20–15%) corresponds to a damage loss ratio and a loss of resilience less than the other cases by 3%. IF20–15% model has the extreme damage probability of 5–7% less when compared with other opening cases. Based on this result, for the considered building the optimum infill opening of IF20–15% can be recommended.

Keywords

• urm infills
• building performance
• resilience
• infill openings
• functionality