Abstract:

Infill walls are building elements that are commonly used in reinforced concrete structures to separate interior spaces and to provide heat and sound insulation. Due to their low carrying capacity, they are considered as nonstructural components and are only taken into account as dead loads. However, studies have shown that infill walls significantly affect the building behavior. In addition, door and window openings are essential in infill walls for ventilation and lighting requirements. In this case, the frame behavior will also change in parallel with this. For this reason, in this study, the structural behavior of RC frames with infill walls including window openings of different sizes and voids under cyclic loads was experimentally investigated. For this purpose, 3 reinforced concrete frames with ½ scale were produced. One of them was produced without an opening, and the other two were produced in the same wall-window opening area, with different shapes and opening positions. The produced frames were tested under cyclic loads using the loading protocol suggested in FEMA 461. By using the findings obtained from the experiments, the carrying capacities, energy dissipation capacities and failure patterns of the infilled wall frames were determined. The findings revealed that the shape and position of the infill wall openings significantly changed the frame behavior.

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