Earthquake Resistance of Different Masonry Materials

Abstract eng:
The present study is about calculating the earthquake resistance of a representative building made of 3 different masonry materials, vertically perforated clay block, sand-lime block, and aerated concrete (AAC) block. The calculation is done following the rules of the current European Codes EN1998-1 and EN1996-1-1. The underlying construction is a building of 3 stories with 3 meters each. For an easy but also meaningful comparison of the 3 varieties the shear wall portion amounts 4% in each excitation direction for all 3 alternatives. Rudimental for the comparison is, that all varieties do have the same Base Shear Coefficient (BSC = base shear force / building weight). The static system is a continuous beam with a field length of 5m. In the analysis and the comparison the maximum loaded middle-wall which has a thickness of 30cm is considered. For the building with the perforated clay bricks the natural frequency is estimated on basis of empirical values from in-situ measurements of typical masonry building constructions. Thus the effective stiffness of the equivalent linear oscillator is acquired. The effective stiffness of the other 2 varieties changes with the stiffness of the used materials, but it happens that the natural periods of all the 3 varieties stay within the constant spectral acceleration branch of the design spectra of EN1998-1. For comparing the efficiency of the earthquake resistance of the different materials the Resistance Excitation Ratio (RER) is introduced. The resistance is calculated using the characteristic shear strength and the area of the shear walls. The excitation is the seismic base shear force which is calculated using the lateral force method of analysis. The performed study shows how different materials affect the seismic performance of masonry buildings and it is also meant to be a guidance for the evaluation of the earthquake resistance according to the rules of the present European Standards.

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