Analysis of reinforced bearing wall under lateral loads

Based on the results of this study, the following conclusions are drawn: 1- The presence of infill brick walls inside the R.C. frame has a great effect in increasing the lateral load capacity of the wall over that of R.C. frame only.2- The presence of walls in the side of lateral load application gave lower load capacity than that in which the walls are present on the other side.3- The absence of walls in the first floor only resulted in about 50% reduction in the lateral load capacity from the case in which these walls are present. However, removing both the first and second floor walls resulted in about 75% reduction in that capacity. On the other hand, the absence the uppermost two floors resulted in about 8% reduction only in that lateral capacity.4- The wall thickness in infilled frame walls has small effect on the lateral load capacity (about 20%) than that of masonry bearing walls in which the effect is large (about 100%).5- The brick type in infilled frame walls has small effect on the lateral load capacity, about 25% increase in concrete over clay bricks. However, for bearing wall this increase is about 150%.6- The presence of vertical reinforcement in the infilled frame brick walls has small effect on increasing the lateral load capacity of these walls. Formasonry bearing walls, the presence of vertical reinforcement has a noticeable effect, about 65% increase. On the other hand, the presence of horizontal reinforcement has no noticeable effect in both cases.7- A 0.5% vetiical reinforcement ratio is the most economic ratio for the reinforced masonry bearing brick wall.8- Walls with high aspect ratio (B/H = 2), render more lateral load carrying capacity than walls with lower aspect ratio, about 300% increase over the case with aspect ratio of 1.9- The presence of vertical load increases the lateral load capacity of the walls in both bearing and infilled frame brick walls.10- The presence of opening with length less than 16% of the total wall length has slight effect on the lateral and vertical load capacities of these walls. However, for openings larger than this ratio, the length reduction should be compensated by increasing the wall thickness in the remaining parts in the presence of steel frame around the opening.11- The arc opening shape gave more vertical load resistance than openings with square and rectangular shapes. This enhancement in the resistance is about 15%.12- The calculated lateral load capacity of full interaction of infilled frame brick walls without accounting for the effect of gap/friction between the R.C. frame and the brick, should be reduced by 20%. Therefore, the