Numerical investigation on the effect of infill masonry on lateral behaviour of surrounding RC frame

The interaction between the masonry infill wall and the surrounding RC frames and the positive or negative consequences of integrating infill walls into a frame is often ignored for the structural design of the building. The masonry infill walls are usually considered a non-structural element. Researchers illustrate that an infilled frame structure performs better against earthquakes. In this paper, a bare frame and a masonry-infilled RC frame were developed, verified with experimental results of an available specimen in literature, and then analyzed using a finite element software ABAQUS. A perfect convergence of the numerical model with the experimental results in terms of strength and lateral load-drift relationship is achieved from validation. The effect of adding masonry wall in terms of lateral strength and shear demand of columns were analyzed. Finally, a parametric study was done varying the lateral capacity of the masonry panel to understand its local behavior. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.