5. Conclusions
Experimental studies have shown that structural infill walls have a major influence on behavior of structures. However, in seismic analysis and design, engineers typically ignore the additional stiffness and strength that the partitions may provide, which could prove to be beneficial or detrimental to the buildings. The purpose of this research is studying the effect of hollow block partitions on structural response of buildings. Thus, four steel frames in one story were tested and the effect of two types of wall separations (nonstructural infill wall separated from two and three sides) on seismic behavior of frame was investigated.
The results showed that for infill wall with physical contact to the frame, the initial stiffness and strength is increased considerably and therefore performance Level is different from those expected. Similar results had been found for nonstructural infill wall separated from two sides. Therefore, the effect of infill walls should be considered particularly for both life safety and collapse level. On other hand, the increase in initial stiffness and strength were less than those of nonstructural infill wall separated from three sides, and performance level was the same as those expected. Therefore, the effect of this nonstructural partition can be ignored particularly for life safety and collapse levels.
