Comparative Analysis of RC Structures with The Influence of Infill Walls Using Equivalent Strut Approach

RC Buildings are very conventional type of construction in India. While analysing & designing the structure, we only consider structural members like slabs, beams, columns, and footings which carries the load and transfer it to another respectively, while walls are not considered under the design criteria and also their impact on the structural response is neglected. In terms of loading only, the effect of walls is considered. But their influence on RC Structural Frames are shown in their global behaviour when subjected to lateral forces. So it is very vital to study its behaviour on RC frames under severe seismic conditions. The presence of infill walls, results in rise in the structural stiffness; also surges natural frequency of vibration which depends on seismic spectrum. In addition to that, it also reduces the storey drift demands & displacements and increases the storey lateral stiffness when it is subjected to lateral loading. In this study a RSA approach is adopted for RC frames with the help of FEM software. The main purpose of this study contains the effect of varying properties of infill wall using different patterns on RC framed structure under lateral load. The FEM model of infill wall was done in Etabs using equivalent strut method. The main objective of this paper is to recognize the performance of the building with varying infill parameters considered like percentage of openings considered, construction material used for infill walls and the performance of such buildings are compared with buildings without infill in zone V as per Indian Standards. In this study, a G+10 RC building is considered with the square plan area of 400 m2. The main parameters are focused in this study have been done on time period, mass participation, storey drifts, storey displacement & base shear and on its basis the performance can be evaluated.