Seismic performance, analysis, and design of hybrid concrete-masonry

Abstract

Caribbean-style hybrid concrete-masonry structures consist of a reinforced concrete frame with partially grouted and reinforced infill masonry walls. The infill walls are typically connected to the RC frame with cast-in-place dowel reinforcement along one or more edges of the wall. There is limited guidance in masonry codes to design these types of structures, and their seismic performance has not been characterized with experimental tests. In this work, an experimental program characterized the seismic behavior of hybrid concrete-masonry frames and showed they do not exhibit the typical strut mechanism observed in unreinforced masonry infill structures. In addition, a detailed finite element modeling scheme and calibration methodology was developed for modeling partially grouted masonry. This model includes a novel calibration method to account for the difference in the shear and tensile behavior of bed joints with grouted and ungrouted cells, and a method to account for the contribution of vertical reinforcement to the shear capacity of the bed joints with grouted cells. Finally, simplified models were proposed for use in engineering design. A modification of the TMS 402 strut model for hybrid concrete-masonry was suggested to incorporate the effects of the masonry infill and connections in large models.