Influence of Strengthening the Infill Walls with Perforated Steel Plates on the Behavior of RC Frames

The Strengthening of the non-bearing elements of a structure not only increases the overall lateral strength and stiffness of the structure, but also causes a major amount of the earthquake energy to be absorbed by the nonbearing members and therefore reduces the risk of damage in the structural components. The present paper focuses on a number of experiments carried out within an extensive research program, investigating the influence of strengthening the brick infill walls of an RC frame with perforated steel plates on the seismic behavior of the frame. Perforated steel plates are adopted in strengthening due to their several advantages including the great ductilities and deformation capacities of these plates, the fire resistant, recyclable and non-cancerogenic nature of steel and the ease of application of this technique. A total of 14 half-scale specimens, each composed of a strong foundation, two columns, a beam, and a brick wall, were tested. Plate thickness, bolt spacing and plate-column connection were chosen as the test parameters. The observations from previous experiments conducted on individual brick wall specimens were used for detailing the strengthening plates and the plate-wall connections. Additional column and joint strengthening applications provided significant improvements in the seismic behavior of the specimens.