Seismic Retrofitting of Masonry Infilled Reinforced Concrete Frames with an Open Ground Story Using Inverted-Y Steel Bracing System

ABSTRACT

This paper presents results from numerical investigation into the seismic retrofit of masonry infilled reinforced concrete (RC) frame structures with soft ground story using inverted-Y steel bracing system. The dynamic response of the retrofitted four-story RC frame with an open ground story is evaluated and compared with the response of the original frame. Comparisons are carried out with the variation of the mechanical characteristics of infills in order to investigate the way in which the soft story mechanism occurs. Results from nonlinear dynamic analyses indicate that this type of bracing can effectively eliminate the formation of a soft-story collapse mechanism.

KEYWORDS:

• Reinforced concrete frame
• masonry infill
• soft-story mechanism
• seismic retrofitting
• vertical shear link
• nonlinear dynamic analysis
• seismic response

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).