RESEARCH ARTICLE
Distinct Element Modeling of Masonry-Infilled Steel Frames with Openings
Amin Mohebkhah*, 1, A. A. Tasnimi2
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2012Volume: 6
First Page: 42
Last Page: 49
Publisher ID: TOBCTJ-6-42
DOI: 10.2174/1874836801206010042
Article History:
Received Date: 30/11/2011Revision Received Date: 16/03/2012
Acceptance Date: 12/04/2012
Electronic publication date: 31/10/2012
Collection year: 2012
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Numerical analysis of masonry-infilled steel frames (MISFs) is one of the greatest challenges faced by structural engineers. This difficulty results from the presence of joints as the source of discontinuities and nonlinearities as well as the interaction of frame-infill panel. In spite of many studies performed on numerical modeling of solid MISFs, there are few studies on MISFs with openings. A 2D numerical model using the specialized distinct element software UDEC (2004) for the pushover analysis of MISFs with openings is developed. In this model, large displacements and rotations between masonry bricks are taken into account. A comparison between the results of distinct element modeling and the experimental results available in the literature showed a good correlation between them. Furthermore, It was found that the model has the capability to predict lateral load capacity, joint cracking patterns and explore the possible failure modes of MISFs with openings.