Seismic behavior of reinforced concrete buildings using chained masonry walls randomly located

The widespread use of masonry infill walls in the most prone zones to earthquakes, for the execution of multistoried reinforced concrete buildings, as well as the recorded damage caused by earthquakes, have forced us to study their influence on the seismic behavior of these buildings. The distribution of masonry infill walls in these buildings is mainly related to their architectural requirements. The purpose of this article is to assess the influence of the various locations of chained masonry walls, which represent a particular type of masonry infill walls without gaps, on multistoried reinforced concrete buildings. This variation has been studied using the SAP finite element software, by the pushover method, analyzing several two-dimensional multistoried reinforced concrete frames infilled by double-leaf hollow brick walls. The proposed frames have been analyzed by varying the position of the chained masonry walls, based on the seismic criteria of the period, elastic base shear, elastic lateral displacement, ultimate base shear, and initial stiffness. The results were compared according to the above criteria. After comparing the results, it is very clear that the position of the masonry walls has a great influence on the seismic response of the reinforced concrete frames. Therefore, it is very important to take into account the position of the infill in the design phase.