Out of Plane Strength of Infill Panels

Abstract eng:
This paper presents the results of an analytical investigation on out-of-plane strengths of infill panels. Effects of in-plane damages on the panels’ out of plane strengths are studied herein. For the purpose, some infill panels with different numbers of cracks are modeled by finite elements. It is shown that FEMA formula can accurately predict the out of plane strength of an infill panels, having good connectivity to the surrounding frames. Nevertheless, for infills with a gap between frame and infill, which are practically created in normal earthquakes, infill out of plane strength will be ignorable. In this condition, required strength should be supplied by other elements or devices, such as reinforcements. Based on experimental results of this study, during in plane loading, interface cracking will be observed in low drifts. For bigger ones, the corners of compression diagonal remain only in contact with the frame; however when the frame returns back to the normal position (zero drift), the gap can be seen all around the infill adjacent to the frame. In this case, infill has minimum out-of-plane strength, which has not been considered yet. Therefore, the out of plane strength of infill panels should be practically less than that proposed by FEMA. Tests on concrete specimens showed that infill may lean outward just for in-plane loading, even in the absence of out of plane acceleration.

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