Seismic Performance of Confined Masonry Buildings with Tubular Bricks in Developing Areas

Abstract eng:
In many developing countries there are low-income zones in urban areas where people build their houses with non-engineered or even non-structural materials. The main reason for this situation is the low cost of these materials and their workman. Peru is a high earthquake-prone country located in the Circumpacific Seismic Belt. Its capital, Lima City, as well as other important cities of the country, has experienced a fast growth of the urban area around the outskirts. A lot of houses in these areas have been built with tubular-masonry bricks. These bricks were initially launched only for non-structural purposes – uses in partitioning walls or parapets – but were progressively used to build structural walls by non-engineering contractors in non standard buildings, which are the most not only in the outskirts but also in certain consolidated zones of the main town. This reality deserved a study to evaluate the actual seismic vulnerability of these buildings, subjected to possible design ground motions. To reach this goal, a series of tests were carried out in the components (bricks, mortars, and little walls) and in four confined tubular masonry walls, which were submitted to cyclic horizontal loading tests. A comparison of the performance of walls of different materials is shown. Based on inelastic analysis of simplified models of small buildings, interesting differences between the seismic performance of solid masonry buildings and that of tubular masonry buildings were found and discussed. An acceptable seismic performance could be possible to reach in two-story buildings mainly with high wall-density and regular structural configuration. These discussions are finally related to the actual performance of these types of buildings during the Mw 7.9 Pisco, Peru earthquake, occurred in August 15th, 2007.

• Export as: BibTeX | MARC | MARCXML | DC | EndNote | NLM | RefWorks
• Add to your basket