Rocking Cantilever Clay Brick Infill Wall Panels: A Novel Low Damage Infill Wall System

摘要

In this article, the development of a new low damage clay brick infill wall system has been reported. The solution enables an engineer to control the drift level after which the infill wall damage can be allowed. This is achieved by utilizing a system of individual rocking clay brick infill panels rather than a single squat infill wall, which minimizes the interaction between the infill wall and the structural system until a selected design drift level. The solution is a workaround for the controversial aspects of clay brick infill walls, which are brittleness, or lack of deformability/ductility and unreliable strength. The seismic performances of an as-built unreinforced clay brick infill wall and the developed low damage clay brick infill wall system were evaluated by 2D quasi static tests. The results were calibrated and used for the analysis of a typical New Zealand building model in order to observe the effects of the as-built and the low damage infill wall systems on the maximum inter-story drift profiles of the structure.