Testing analytical models for assessing the out-of-plane capacity of infill masonry

The influence of masonry infills on the seismic behaviour of reinforced concrete buildings has been widely studied in terms of their strength and stiffness contribution in the in-plane direction while less studies have been carried out on their response in their out-of-plane (OOP) direction. OOP collapses were observed on recent earthquakes motivating experimental efforts to characterize this behaviour combined and not with previous damage due to in plane loading demands. The present paper pretends to compare the test findings of two different experimental campaigns carried out on full-scale and scaled infill masonry panels under out-of-plane load. The main results of both experimental campaigns will be detailed and discussed to evaluate the key parameters that governed the infill panels OOP behaviour. The results will be presented in terms of force-displacement envelopes, energy dissipation and failure modes. Besides that, the second main goal of the manuscript is to present the comparison of the experimental results with the analytical models available in the literature.