Macro-modeling approach incorporating fiber plastic hinge for reinforced concrete frames with masonry infill

An indefinite guide from technical codes around the world leads to confusion and repudiation of masonry infill during the structural design and analysis of infilled frames. In recent years, the rising interest in nonlinear seismic analysis has called for a robust yet simple numerical modeling strategy to model the seismic behavior of reinforced concrete frames with masonry infill. This study aims to propose a reliable macro-modeling approach that incorporates fiber plastic hinge to simulate the in-plane hysteresis response of reinforced concrete frames with masonry infill. An existing constitutive law and a simplified pivot hysteretic law were fine-tuned to describe the nonlinear behavior and cyclic response of the equivalent diagonal strut representing solid clay brick masonry. A comparison with experimental observations showed that the proposed numerical modeling strategy can satisfactorily predict the in-plane global response of infilled frames.