OVERVIERW OF AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE SEISMIC PERFORMANCE OF NON-DUCTILE RC FRAMES WITH NEW AND EXISTING MASONRY INFILLS WITH SLIDING SUBPANELS

The performance of a recently proposed innovative retrofit scheme for existing non-ductile RC frames infilled with both newly constructed and existing masonry infill walls is examined here experimentally. The scheme aims at preventing the shear-dominated brittle failure by introducing horizontal sliding joints, which divide the infill into subpanels. Four single-bay RC frames, including a control specimen with a regular solid infill, two specimens with newly constructed infills, and one specimen with a retrofitted existing infill were tested at the University at Buffalo. All four specimens had RC frames with the same non-ductile reinforcement detailing representing the design and construction practice in California in the 1920s. The paper discusses the design and the construction details of the infills with the sliding subpanels, as well as the test results from the four specimens. These results indicate that the damage can be significantly reduced, and the ductility of the structure can be substantially increased when the infill is divided into subpanels that are allowed to slide.