Preventing Undesirable Seismic Behaviour of Infill Walls in Design Process
Preventing Undesirable Seismic Behaviour of Infill Walls in Design Process

Summary/Abstract: Dividing walls are usually considered as non-structural elements, but experiences of past earthquakes show that some buildings designed and constructed by engineers have been damaged during earthquakes because of disregarding the negative effects of walls. Apart from the poor quality of construction and materials, inattention in design process is the main reason for undesirable seismic behaviour of walls.The main aim of this paper is to investigate the measures taken in different stages of architectural and structural design for improving the seismic behaviour of infilled concrete structures. As a general principle, with the further progress of project from basic architectural design to detailed structural design, there is a need to reduce designer authority and increase obligation, furthermore the cost of project increases too. The conclusion of this study implies that, in order to achieve the desirable seismic behaviour of walls, close collaboration between architects and structural engineers is required from the early stages of design. The results of this study are presented in a check list for designing reinforced concrete (RC) moment resisting frame and RC shear wall.

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