• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.213-229
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• 2013

Although performance based assessment procedures are mainly developed for reinforced concrete and steel buildings, URM (Unreinforced Masonry) buildings occupy significant portion of buildings in earthquake prone areas of the world as well as in IRAN. Variability of material properties, non-engineered nature of the construction and difficulties in structural analysis of masonry walls make analysis of URM buildings challenging. Despite sophisticated finite element models satisfy the modeling requirements, extensive experimental data for definition of material behavior and high computational resources are needed. Recently, nonlinear equivalent frame models which are developed assigning lumped plastic hinges to isotropic and homogenous equivalent frame elements are used for nonlinear modeling of URM buildings. The equivalent frame models are not novel for the analysis of masonry structures, but the actual potentialities have not yet been completely studied, particularly for non-linear applications. In the present paper an effective tool for the non-linear static analysis of 2D masonry walls is presented. The work presented in this study is about performance assessment of unreinforced brick masonry buildings through nonlinear equivalent frame modeling technique. Reliability of the proposed models is tested with a reversed cyclic experiment conducted on a full scale, two-story URM building at the University of Pavia. The pushover curves were found to provide good agreement with the experimental backbone curves. Furthermore, the results of analysis show that EFM (Equivalent Frame Model) with Dolce RO (rigid offset zone) and shell element have good agreement with finite element software and experimental results.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.599-614
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• 2018

This study focuses on the earthquake performance of two URM buildings having typical architectural configurations common for residential use constructed per pre-modern code in Albania. Both buildings are unreinforced clay brick masonry structures constructed in 1960 and 1984, respectively. The first building is a three-storey unreinforced one with masonry walls. The second one is confined masonry rising on five floors. Mechanical characteristics of masonry walls were determined based on experimental tests conducted according to ASTM C67-09 regulations. A global numerical model of the buildings was built, and masonry material was simulated as nonlinear. Pushover analyses are carried out to obtain capacity curves. Displacement demands were calculated according to Eurocode 8 and FEMA440 guidelines. Causes of building failures in recent earthquakes were examined using the results of this study. The results of the study showed that the URM building displays higher displacement and shear force demands that can be directly related to damage or collapse. On the other hand, the confined one exhibits relatively higher seismic resistance by indicating moderate damage. Moreover, effects of demand estimation approaches on performance assessment of URM buildings were compared. Deficiencies and possible solutions to improve the capacity of such buildings were discussed.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.611-625
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• 2014

This paper presents a simple methodology that integrates an improved storey shear modelling, Incremental Dynamic Analysis and Monte Carlo Simulation in order to carryout vulnerability analysis towards development of fragility curves for Unreinforced Brick Masonry buildings. The methodology is demonstrated by developing fragility curves of a single storey Unreinforced Brick Masonry building for which results of experiment under lateral load is available in the literature. In the study presented, both uncertainties in mechanical properties of masonry and uncertainties in the characteristics of earthquake ground motion are included. The research significance of the methodology proposed is that, it accommodates a new method of damage grade classification which is based on 'structural performance characteristics' instead of 'fixed limiting values'. The usefulness of such definition is discussed as against the existing practice.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.247-278
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• 2010

The study of the seismic vulnerability of masonry buildings requires structural properties of walls such as stiffness, ultimate load capacity, etc. In this article, a method is suggested for modeling the masonry walls under in-plane loading. At the outset, a set of analytical equations was established for determining the elastic properties of an equivalent homogeneous material of masonry. The results for homogenized unreinforced brick walls through detailed modeling were compared in different manners such as solid and perforated walls, in-plane and out-of-plane loading, etc, and it was found that this method provides suitable accuracy in estimation of the wall linear properties. Furthermore, comparison of the results of proposed modeling with experimental out coming indicated that this model considers the non linear properties of the wall such as failure pattern, performance curve and ultimate strength, and would be appropriate to establish a parametric study on those prone factors. The proposed model is complicated; therefore, efforts need to be made in order to overcome the convergency problems which will be included in this study. The nonlinear model is basically semi-macro but through a series of actions, it can be simplified to a macro model.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.609-629
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• 2012

This study deals with the assessment of low and mid rise multi-story buildings made of stone and /or brick, composite steel and masonry slabs from the sixties, known to be vulnerable to seismic hazard using the "vulnerability index" method based on buildings survey following Ain Temouchent (1999) and Boumerdes (2003) earthquakes, from where vulnerability curves are constructed using the translation method. The results obtained for the case study confirm what has been observed in situ.

• Journal of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.179-190
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• 1998

All brick masonry buildings are constructed without any structural limitation under earthquake load, in Korea. However, it is necessary to evaluate response for seismic loads since the number of earthquake occurances in Korea is increasing. In this paper, the load resisting capacities of brick masonry buildings are investigated by finite element analysis method and the response due to seismic load are analyzed by applying 0.12g earthquake load. It was observed that the two story masonry building is not safe under the 0.12g earthquake load, especially at the first floor. The cracks were occurred under the bond beam and around the openings due to the stress concentration.