Presentation and validation of a specific RBSM approach for the meso-scale modelling of in-plane masonry-infills in RC frames

In the last few years, the scientific community has been strongly involved in the development of approaches able to incorporate the contribution of infill walls in seismic vulnerability analysis of infilled RC framed buildings. The detailed meso-scale modelling of panels within global models as an alternative to equivalent strut models is still a challenge because of the difficulties in controlling constitutive parameters and the high computational effort. The potential of rigid body and spring models (RBSMs) in this field is investigated by exploiting a specific code for the nonlinear analysis of in-plane masonry with an efficient computational management. The reference benchmark is an infilled one-bay one-storey frame that was subjected to cyclic tests within an experimental campaign and has been here modelled by RBSM, performing a set of numerical parametrical analyses under lateral loads. A good general matching of results and effective computational performance have been found.