In structural analyses, masonry infill walls are commonly considered to be non structural elements. However, the response of reinforced concrete buildings to earthquake loads can be substantially affected by the influence of infill walls. In this article, an improved numerical model for the simulation of the behavior of masonry infill walls subjected to earthquake loads is proposed and analyzed. First, the proposed model is presented. This is an upgrading of the equivalent bi-diagonal compression strut model, commonly used for the nonlinear behavior of infill masonry panels subjected to cyclic loads. Second, the main results of the calibration analyses obtained with two series of experimental tests are presented and discussed: one on a single frame with one story and one bay tested at the LNEC Laboratory; and the second, on a full-scale four story and three-bay frame tested at the ELSA laboratory.

In this study, the implementation of an optical accelerometer unit based on fiber Bragg gratings, suitable to monitor structures with frequencies up to 45 Hz, is reported. The developed optical system was used to estimate the structure eigenfrequencies of a steel footbridge, with a total length of 300 m, over the Sao Pedro Creek, located at University of Aveiro Campus, in Portugal. The acceleration records measured with this solution are compared with those obtained by traditional commercial electronic devices, revealing a root-mean-square error of 2.53 times 10^-5 G.

A comprehensive power comparison study of existing tests for normality is proposed. Given the importance of this subject and the widespread development of normality tests, comprehensive descriptions and power comparisons of such tests are of considerable interest. Since recent comparison studies do not include several interesting and more recently developed tests, a further comparison of normality tests is considered to be of foremost interest. The study addresses the performance of 33 normality tests, for various sample sizes, considering several significance levels and for a number of symmetric, asymmetric and modified normal distributions. General recommendations for normality testing resulting from the study are defined according to the nature of the non-normality.