Study Case: Repairing An Adobe Colonial Building in Cusco Peru

Abstract eng:
Many of the historical buildings located in seismic prone areas, like Cusco in Peru, are built out of adobe. Because adobe as a construction material has shown a poor behavior during earthquakes, it’s a great challenge for engineers to propose adequate methodologies to face this problem. This paper deals with the geotechnical and structural studies developed for the restoration and retrofitting of an adobe colonial mansion. It was built in the mid eighteenth century, constructed on pre Inca and Inca terraces and located close to the archaeological complex of Koricancha in the historical center of Cusco. This construction suffered at least three severe earthquakes (1650, 1950 and 1986) which damaged his structure. The repairs following those events were in general inadequate. Many of the cracks were only covered with plaster and poor reinforcement was placed in some parts of the structure. Beside this, former tenants took even worse actions like carving walls to enlarge window openings and doors and the addition of poor quality water pipes caused leaking. All of those procedures increased the vulnerability of the construction introducing inadequate changes in its structural configuration as well as moisture in the adobe walls. This drastically decreased the strength of some of the walls leading the structure to an incipient state of collapse. The critical stage was reach when the facade walls started to fall apart. As a first action, bracing was placed all around the structure prior to the implementation of engineering studies. The Ministry of Culture commissioned an archaeological site and architectural researches for restoration purposes. Studies of soil mechanics as well as structural analysis were performed to retrofit the building. A basic study to the dynamic behavior of the building was performed with the help of a 3D dynamic FEM-program. Reinforcement alternatives were developed and analyzed based upon effectiveness, cost and applicability; the most effective ones were chosen. The selected alternatives were thereupon combined and detailed. Wood rigid diaphragms, wood collar beams and steel tensors were used as reinforcement. Due to the historical value of the building, other alternatives such as adding walls, vertical reinforcement as well as mesh, were ruled out. Because of its multidisciplinary approach, the case presented in this study can be considered representative for future studies on historical buildings located in seismic prone areas.

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