Seismic performance of unreinforced and confined masonry structures: shear resistance and displacement capacity

Abstract eng:
Shear failure, characterized by the occurrence of diagonally oriented cracks, is a typical failure mode of unreinforced and confined masonry walls subjected to in-plane seismic loads. The results of recent experimental studies have been used to compare the results obtained by typical calculation methods with actual situation. It has been shown that the validity of most commonly used equations is limited to specific cases and mechanisms on the basis of which they have been developed. The results of lateral resistance tests of masonry walls and shaking table tests of a number of models of masonry buildings of various structural configurations, built with various materials in different construction systems, have been analyzed to find a correlation between the occurrence of different grades of damage to structural elements, characteristic limit states and displacement capacity. Taking into consideration the correlation between the acceptable level of damage and actual displacement capacity of unreinforced and confined masonry structures, the ranges of values of elastic force reduction factor, used to determine the design seismic loads for different masonry construction systems, have been evaluated. It has been shown that the values, proposed by the recently adopted European standard for earthquake resistant design, are somewhat conservative even in the case where mechanism models and the analysis of the pushover type are used for seismic resistance verification.

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