The specimen consists of a three-dimensional one-storey full-scale RC frame with masonry infills. The RC frame is the same as the one of INMASPOL project, designed according to EC2 and EC8 (including capacity-design principles). It has plan dimensions of 3m x 3m and a total height of 3.3m.

The class of concrete is C30/37. The columns have a square section of 20cm x 20cm and are 2.7m high. They are reinforced with B450 steel rebars. The beams are embedded within the top slab, which is 30cm thick and is reinforced with welded meshes at the top and at the bottom. Differently from INMASPOL project, the slab has no hole at the centre, since access to inside the frame is possible viathe windows. The frames are constructed on a special foundation, with holes to attach them to the shake table and hooks for lifting it. The infill walls are made with Poroton hollow blocks (Fig. 2c) typically employed in construction practice for traditional infills. These will be provided as an in-kind contribution by the German ZIEGEL association of brick producers (UG member), which will also advise on the characteristics of the mortar joints between the blocks and on construction techniques. The interior side of the walls will be covered in plaster to check also the damage incurred by this.

The Type 1 joint system (Fig.3a) consists of the horizontal joints developed by TARRC (Type 1T in Fig. 2a,b) and of elastomeric joints at the interface between the panel and the frame’s columns (Type 1E in Fig. 2a,b). This system is a “compliant system” that aims to increase the flexibility of the panel as well as in controlling the interaction between the panel and the frame. Type 1T joints (Fig.3a) are made from a high-damping natural rubber (HDNR) compound having different stiffnesses along the three orthogonal directions, which is an essential requisite in order to achieve optimal behaviour in the in-plane and out-of-plane directions. Added pins enhance the strength of the bond between the rubber and the thick mortar layers connecting the joints to the blocks. Type 1E rubber layers (Fig. 3b), made with recycled rubber (provided by Regupol, UG member), have low compressive stiffness and high deformation capacity to avoid stress concentration along the column-infill interface. The Type 2 joints system (Fig.3c,d) is a “decoupling system” consisting of Regupol’s rubber strips that isolate the infill from the frame. Decoupling in the in-plane direction is achieved because rubber strips have low compressive stiffness and are highly deformable. The out-of-plane connection is provided with the arrangement of the rubber strips, having them divided in three parts, where two outer parts are connected to the infill wall and inner strips are glued to the frame (columns and top/bottom beam). Rubber strips are connected to the frame/wall using thin-layer mortar usually applied in practice.

The prototype has two sides that are fully infilled and two sides with openings (see Fig.2a). They have horizontal Type 1T joints and Type 1E vertical joints between the infill and the columns. It has horizontal Type 2 joints around all four sides of the infill wall, between the infill and frame. A symmetric arrangement of the walls has been considered to avoid torsional effects, so that simplified modelling strategies, based on 2D models (e.g. [8]) can be employed for the preliminary analysis of the system and for interpreting the test results.