철근콘크리트 건축물에서 비내력벽(Masonry Infill Walls)은 내부 칸막이벽이나 중저층 규모의 건물 외벽에 흔히 사용된다. 그렇지만 대부분의 경우에 비내력벽은 비구조체이므로 구조설계시 건물의 모형화에서 무시된다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 비내력벽을 보편화된 모형화 방법인 등가의 대각 압축 스트럿(Equivalent Diagonal Strut)으로 고려하여 비내력벽의 유무에 따른 저층 철근콘크리트 건축물의 전체적인 지진거동의 양상을 평가하고자 하였다. 해석결과로 비내력벽을 고려하면 시스템의 추가적인 강도 및 강성을 확보하여 층간변위비를 줄일 수 있으나 진동주기가 짧아져서 설계단계에서 고려한 지진하중보다 큰 하중을 받게 된다. 연약층이 있는 모델의 경우에는 기둥에 소성거동이 집중됨을 알 수 있으며 부분적인 붕괴가 전체 시스템의 붕괴 원인의 가능성을 가진다.
Masonry infill walls are frequently used as interior partitions and exterior walls in low- or middle- rise RC buildings. In the design and assessment of buildings, the infill walls are usually treated as non-structural elements and they are ignored in analytical models because they are assumed to be beneficial to the structural responses. Therefore, their influences on the structural response are ignored. In the case of buildings constructed in the USA in highly seismic regions, infill walls have a lower strength and stiffness than the boundary frames or they are separated from the boundary frames. Thus, the previously mentioned assumptions may be reasonable. However, these systems are not usually employed in most other countries. Therefore, the differences in the seismic behaviors of RC buildings with/without masonry infill walls, which are ignored in structural design, need to be investigated. In this study, structural analyses were performed for a masonry infilled low-rise RC moment-resisting frame. The infill walls were modeled as equivalent diagonal struts. The seismic behaviors of the RC moment-resisting frame with/without masonry infill walls were evaluated. From the analytical results, masonry infill walls can increase the global strength and stiffness of a structure. Consequently, the interstory drift ratio will decrease but seismic forces applied to the structure will increase more than the design seismic load because the natural period of the structure decreases. Partial damage of the infill walls by the floor causes vertical irregularity of the strength and stiffness.