A significant portion of the existing building stock that was constructed prior to the enactment of modern seismic design provisions consists of gravity-load- designed reinforced concrete (GLDRC) frames, infilled with unreinforced masonry (URM) walls. Masonry infill walls have been used in reinforced concrete frame structures as interior and exterior partition walls. Since they are usually considered as non-structural elements, their interaction with the bounding frame is often ignored in design. Lessons learned from past earthquakes have shown that such interaction may or may not be beneficial to the performance of the structure. This paper presents the results of a series of shake table tests conducted on one half scale gravity-load-designed reinforced concrete frame containing an unreinforced infill wall built using hollow concrete blocks. The tests were conducted at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. The objectives was to determine its performance under low, moderate and severe earth quakes, the test specimen was subjected to prescribed simulated ground motions at different intensities generated by the unidirectional shake table located at the Earthquake Engineering Research Facility of the above mentioned University. The demand for upgrading strategies of these buildings has become increasingly important in the last few years, especially in light of the damage observed in recent earthquakes such as those in Turkey, Pakistan, Iran and Taiwan. Even more, according to requirements of current building codes in several countries these types of structures require retrofitting in order to comply with the new provisions.
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