Infill Walls with Sliding Joints to Limit Infill-Frame Seismic Interaction: Large-Scale Experimental Test

Abstract

This article presents the results of an experimental campaign on the in-plane behavior of masonry infill walls. Four tests were performed on large-scale specimens to evaluate the infill deformation capacity and damage for different drift levels. A design solution adopting horizontal sliding joints was proposed for reducing the infill-frame interaction, and its performance was compared with the configuration without joints. Both hollow-fired clay bricks and adobe were tested. The experimental tests showed the effectiveness of the sliding joints in reducing the infill wall damage and a higher performance of adobe infills with respect to hollow-fired clay specimens.