This paper investigates the behavior of confined masonry walls subjected to lateral loads. Six full-scale wall assembles, consisting of a clay masonry panel, two confining columns and a tie beam, were tested under a combination of vertical load and monotonic pushover up to failure. Wall panels had various configurations, namely, solid and perforated walls with window and door openings, variable longitudinal and transverse reinforcement ratios for the confining elements and different brick types, namely, cored clay and solid concrete masonry units. Key experimental results showed that the walls in general experienced a shear failure at the end of the lightly reinforced confining elements after the failure of the diagonal struts formed in the brick wall due to transversal diagonal tension. Stepped bed joint cracks formed in the masonry panel either diagonally or around the perforations. A numerical model was built using the finite element method and was validated in light of the experimental results. The model showed acceptable correlation and was used to conduct a thorough parametric study on various design configurations. The conducted parametric study involved the assessment of the load/displacement response for walls with different aspect ratios, axial load ratios, number of confining elements as well as the size and orientation of perforations. It was found that the strength of the bricks and the number of confining elements play a significant role in increasing the walls' ultimate resistance and displacement ductility. ª 2014 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Housing and Building National Research Center.

Reinforced concrete flat slab-column structures are widely used because of their practicality. However, this type of structures can be subjected to punching-shear failure within the slab-column connections. Without shear reinforcement, the slab-column connection can undergo brittle punching failure, especially when the structure is subjected to lateral loading in seismic zones. This research is a part of an extensive investigation about the punching shear behaviour of interior RC slab-column connections under seismic loading. The main objective is to discuss the effect of the gravity shear level on the punching shear behaviour[1].The current paper represents only the results of the first four tested specimens without shear reinforcement. The first specimen was tested subjected to vertical gravity load only without cyclic loading while the other three specimens were tested under different vertical loads V which was kept constant during testing in addition to a reversed displacement controlled cyclic loading which was increased up to punching shear failure. The gravity load V was chosen as 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 V0 respectively, where V0 is the vertical load causing punching shear failure according to ACI318-14[2]. All tested specimens have the same slab dimensions of 2000x2000mm, slab thickness 200mm, flexural reinforcement ratio of 1.62% and the same column dimensions 250mm x 250mm. Finally, the experimental results are analyzed and compared to international codes such as American Code ACI318-14 and Euro Code EC2-2004[3]. In light of these results, some preliminary conclusions are presented.

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<p>Reinforced concrete flat slab-column structures are widely used because of their practicality. However, this type of structures can be subjected to punching-shear failure with in the slab-column connections. Without shear reinforcement, the slab-column connection can undergo brittle punching failure, especially when the structure is subjected to lateral loading in seismic zones. This research is a part of an extensive investigation about the punching shear behavior of interior RC slab-column connections under seismic loading. The current paper represents only the results of the first two tested specimens. The main objective is to discuss the nature and mechanism of effect seismic loading on punching shear behaviour. Finally, the experimental results are analyzed and compared to international codes such as American Code ACI318-14[1] and Euro Code EC2-2004[2]. In light of these results, some preliminary conclusions are presented.</p><p>papers will be distributed in the electronic conference proceedings.</p>