bstract: Infill and partition walls as nonstructural elements are generally constructed with hollow brick

masonry and briquette as single or

multilayered vertical walls. The seismic responses of infill walls and reinforced concrete (RC) framed
buildings have been investigated with field
observations after earthquakes all over the world. This study focuses on the reasons infill and partition
walls failed as a result of the October 23,
2011 (Mw ¼ 7.2), and November 9, 2011 (Mw ¼ 5.7), Van earthquakes in Turkey. In this paper, in-plane,
out-of-plane, and combined failure
mechanisms of single and multilayered infill walls enclosed within reinforced concrete structures were
investigated, and construction rules were
suggested. To limit the failure of nonstructural elements enclosed within an RC frame, design and
construction requirements should be included
in the seismic code by adopting suitable solutions for both in-plane and out-of-plane behavior.