Seismic Performance Assessment of Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Masonry Buildings

Abstract eng:
Autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) blocks are diffusely used worldwide as a construction material both for infill panels and load-bearing walls, because of their superior properties of fire resistance and thermal insulation. The application and use of such technology in seismic prone areas, however, still requires further verification of the expected structural performance. The very low weight of this material and its high deformability (low value of Young modulus in compression) tends to reduce inertia forces on the building induced by the seismic motion. On the other hand the masonry compressive strength of AAC, although its variability is extremely limited, is rather low compared to other traditional masonry types. In order to assess the seismic behaviour of entire AAC masonry buildings, a calibration of the nonlinear macro-element included in the TREMURI analysis program was carried out based on the experimental cyclic response of masonry piers observed in tests performed at the EUCENTRE and University of Pavia laboratories. Hence, several nonlinear static and dynamic analyses were carried out on complete building models, considering different structural configurations representative of typical Italian masonry building typologies. The results obtained from adaptive pushover analyses (Actual Displacement-Based Adaptive Pushover) of the different prototypes have been compared with the results of incremental dynamic analyses.

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