Damage assessment of an existing RC infilled structure by numerical simulation of the dynamic response

This paper proposes a dynamic structural health monitoring and damage detection method to assess the structural integrity and safety of an RC framed building with masonry infills. The effectiveness of the method is verified by numerical analyses that were performed on a RC moment-resisting frame structure investigated by Paultre et al. and applied on an existing RC framed building with masonry infill walls, which provide a strong contribution to the dynamic response and seismic performance of the building. Different damage states are simulated through the nonlinear static (pushover) analysis developed by the FE model of the building, and this analysis considers both the bare framed structure and the infilled structure to appraise the damage to the infill walls. The identification and location of the damage is estimated using the modal properties of the damaged building at various steps of the nonlinear analysis. The results highlight the different evolutions of the damage in the bare and infilled frames and the possibility of detection via dynamic monitoring.