Behaviour of Reinforced Concrete Infill Panels under Lateral Load

Abstract

Most multi-storey building construction consists of RC frames with UM infills. Traditionally, infills are made of the RCB; however, to reduce Dead Load on the building, RCB are being replaced by AAC and FAB. UM infill is vulnerable element during an earthquake, since it fails by Shear, Sliding and Out-of-plane bending. Behaviour of infill with RCB is well studied; however, studies on infill with AAC and FAB are limited. In the present study, behaviour of different RC infill panels is studied and compared with bare RC frame under monotonic lateral load. RC frame specimens comprising of two columns connected by horizontal beam at top and bottom are developed and tested. Parameters considered for the study are Lateral Displacement, Lateral Stiffness, Failure Load and Patterns. Lateral displacement of all types of RC infill panels are reduced substantially as compared to bare RC frame. RC frame infilled with AAC block shows maximum lateral displacement followed by RC frame infilled with FAB and RCB. RC frame infilled with RCB withstand maximum lateral load while RC frame infilled with F AB withstand the least load. The failure patterns observed for RC frame with different infills are mostly stepped type and shear type.