Design of reinforced concrete enclosures infilled with clay block masonry (Part 2)
Within the scope of the joint European project INSYSME, the German partners developed two systems - IMES and INODIS - for improving the seismic behaviour of masonry infilled reinforced concrete frames. The purpose of both systems is to decouple frame and infill instead of working to improve their load-bearing capacity by means of elaborate, expensive, supplementary reinforcing elements. Initial findings for the IMES system with regard to the loads acting in-plane and perpendicular to the wall plane (out-of-plane) are presented.
4 Numerical models
4.1 Modelling strategies
The load-bearing behaviour of masonry infilled reinforced concrete enclosures can be described by means of micro, meso and macro level models displaying significant differences in level of detail and, hence, in modelling effort. In all models, the reinforced concrete frame must be modelled with a realistic approach to stiffness. As far as the infill masonry is concerned, micro-models constitute the most precise, but also the most elaborate and cost-intensive form of modelling, because the masonry units and the joints are treated separately. At the meso...