ABSTRACT
Reinforced Concrete (RC) frames with masonry infill walls are the leading construction type in seismic areas due to their notable behavior under seismic excitation. Based on macroseismic observations and experimental investigations, the presence of infill walls increases the global strength and stiffness, thereby reducing the deformation of the structure. This chapter presents an extensive study on the equivalent strut method and the study focuses on determining the strut widths by means of different empirical equations available in the literature. The masonry infills take only compressive axial loads and with the increase in lateral forces on the frame, the area of infill wall in contact with the RC frame tends to reduce due to separation of the wall from the RC frame near the tension - diagonal joints. In macro modelling technique, a few elements and considerations are used to model the behavior of masonry infills in a straight forward manner.
