Seismic Evaluation of Un-Reinforced Masonry Structures

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to study the methodology available in literature to evaluate the seismic vulnerability of un-reinforced masonry building and to check the applicability of these procedures through experimental studies. Sixteen wall panels of varying dimensions with and without openings were tested for in-plane monotonic lateral loads. The experimental results are compared with the results of existing pushover analysis method (ASCE/SEI 41-06) for URM building. The comparisons show that ASCE/SEI 41-06 method consistently overestimates the strength and stiffness of the URM buildings. A set of modification is proposed for the pushover analysis of URM building based on the experimental investigation. These proposed modifications show consistently good performance in comparison with the existing method (ASCE/SEI 41-06) of pushover analysis.