NUMERICAL MODELING ON INFILLED RC FRAMES RETROFITTED WITH ECC SUBJECTED TO CYCLIC LOADS

Masonry-infilled reinforced concrete (RC) frames constitute a significant part of the building inventory in earthquake-prone regions around the world, only a relatively small number of experimental studies have been performed in order to examine the impact of a thin layer of Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) for retrofitting infilled panel of RC- frames. So, a numerical parametric study is essential. This paper presents a nonlinear finite-element modeling method to evaluate the seismic behavior of RC infilled frames that have retrofitted with ECC, in this study, behavior of infilled RC frame has been investigated using Abaqus\standard package. The modeling was calibrated based on experimental results and then a parametric study was carried out, these parameters include the column depth, infill panel type and ECC retrofitting configurations. The analysis included 2D model using plane stress element. Moreover, nonlinearities of the concrete, infill panel, steel and ECC have been considered. The obtained results indicate that several important conclusions reflecting the effects of the studied ECC- retrofitting technique and the numerical modeling can predict load displacement curves and crack propagation process with good agreement with experimental data.