Modeling Link connection between frame and infill walls

[M.Sheikhi]

Dear SeismoSoft Support Team,

I am currently working on a research project involving the nonlinear modelling of Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) infill panels in SeismoStruct and would appreciate your guidance regarding the modelling of frame–infill interaction while considering the construction gap between the infill wall and the surrounding frame.

In the SeismoStruct User Manual (Appendix F, p. 503), it is stated that:

"Users may wish to introduce link elements between the frame and infill panel nodes, in order to take into account the fact that the infills are commonly not rigidly connected to the surrounding frames."

Furthermore, in the SeismoSoft Forum, your team mentioned that gap/link elements can be used in refined models to represent this behaviour (viewtopic.php?p=11440#p11440)

Could you please provide a simple example model or sample file showing how to model the interaction between a frame and infill panel using link/gap elements while accounting for the gap between them?

Thank you for your support.