A Critical Review of Methods for Determining the Damage States for the In-plane Fragility of Masonry Infill Walls

ABSTRACT

We subjected nine full-scale masonry infilled reinforced concrete frame specimens to quasi-static cyclic loading to critically review the methods for determining the damage state of masonry infill walls to develop reliable in-plane fragility functions. Among the three methods, the method based on maximum crack widths gave the smallest dispersion, whereas the skeleton curve-based methods generated excessive dispersions and the phenomena-based method was shown to be self-contradictory in certain circumstances. If the damage states were determined by maximum crack widths, neither the brick type nor the plaster had a significant influence on the fragility functions.

KEYWORDS:

• fragility function
• damage state
• crack width
• hollow concrete block
• solid clay brick

Disclosure Statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFC1504602) and the Fund for Distinguished Young Scientists of the Heilongjiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (JQ2019E005). This financial support is greatly appreciated.