Training on Earthquake Resistant Construction With Adobe in the Peruvian Andes

Abstract eng:
In Peru, almost 9 million people live in rural areas in self-built earthen houses essentially because it is cheap, and earthen houses are thermally comfortable. However, their seismic performance is very poor because earthen walls are heavy, weak and brittle, and thus they suffer significant damage or collapse during an earthquake, usually with tragic loss of life. Researchers at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) have developed several reinforcement techniques for earthen dwellings, in an effort to improve their structural safety. None of these techniques have, however, been adopted by the rural communities where building with earth is prevalent, mainly due to their high cost and the lack of technological sharing of knowledge among the potential builders. Most rural communities therefore live under unacceptable seismic risk conditions. The development of tools and training programs that allow the dissemination of earthquake-resistant earthen construction to mitigate this problem is therefore a most pressing issue. The PUCP is currently undertaking a pilot project to train a community on the construction of seismically safe adobe houses. This project is being developed at the district of Pullo, a small rural community in the Peruvian Andes where more than 80% of its inhabitants live in adobe houses, with over 50% of them living in poverty or extreme poverty conditions. The project consists on working with the people of the community, helping them improve their housing conditions by acquiring the ability to do so on their own. In addition, a simple low-cost reinforcement is proposed (nylon ropes) in order to increase acceptance among the population and the training program is divided into three phases to ease the learning process. This paper presents first the communication and training tools developed during the project: a portable shaking table to demonstrate the effectiveness of the nylon-rope mesh seismic reinforcement in reduced scale adobe house models; and an updated construction manual for seismic resistant adobe construction. Finally, the paper describes the social experience of training the Pullo community, the difficulties and successes the project has had, and the conclusions it reached. The results attained are expected to serve as reference for future training programs targeting rural communities under similar high seismic risk conditions.

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