Importance of Modeling of Masonry Infill and Effect of Soft Storey on Seismic Performance of R.C High Rise Building with Non Dimensional Strength and Stiffness Parameters

RC framed high rise buildings are generally designed without considering the structural action of masonry infill walls present. These walls are widely used as partitions and considered as non-structural elements. But they affect both the structural and non-structural performance of the RC buildings during earthquakes. RC framed building with open first storey is known as soft storey, which performs poorly during earthquakes. A similar soft storey effect can also appear, at intermediate storey level if a storey used as a service storey. The soft storey located in the lower part of the high rise building especially the ground storey is undesirable as it attracts severely large seismic forces. At the same time, the soft storey located in the upper part of the high rise building does not significantly affect. To study the effect of masonry infill and its modeling technique with different soft storey level, 6 Models of R C framed building were analyzed with two different techniques of modeling of masonry infill with one type of shear wall when subjected to earthquake loading. Technique one is showing more strength and stiffness than two and an attempt is made to develop relationship between strength and stiffness ratios for linear trend line.