Enhancing the seismic resilience of Reinforced concrete structures Using rubber JOInts

The RUJOI project aims to introduce a new paradigm for the design of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings by developing low-cost, flexible, and highly dissipative rubber joints for protecting the masonry infills and enhancing the global structural performance of the RC frame. Many past and recent earthquake-induced disasters have shown that masonry infills are highly vulnerable components of RC buildings, undergoing damage even under minor earthquakes, and causing casualties and significant economic losses. Flexible rubber joints, recently emerged as effective devices for protecting the infills, have also the potential to provide enough energy dissipation capabilities to minimise the RC frame damage and increase the building resilience to earthquakes. The RUJOI project aims to unlock the potential of rubber joints through a combination of experimental and numerical research. Work will be carried out in collaboration with Tun Abdul Razak Research Center (TARRC), a world-leading research center in anti-seismic rubber-based devices, to reduce the cost and improve the performance of the joints, by introducing unvulcanized and recycled rubber compounds. Moreover, a novel 3D macro-element modelling strategy for masonry infill walls with joints will be developed and validated in collaboration with University of Catania. The proposed strategy, implemented in advanced nonlinear structural software, will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the joints in reducing the seismic vulnerability and losses for typical infilled RC buildings in Europe and worldwide. This will help to quantify the benefits of introducing the rubber joints in increasing the resilience of masonry-infilled RC buildings in areas with different seismic hazard levels, in line with the EU’s objectives of Resilient and Secure Smart Cities and Disaster Resilient Society. Finally, simplified design tools will be developed, allowing the exploitation of the research outcomes by practitioners.