Failure criteria of unreinforced masonry walls of rural buildings under the impact of flash floods in mountainous regions

Damage to rural buildings in mountainous regions caused by flash floods accounts for a significant proportion of economic losses from disasters.The unreinforced masonry(URM)wall is the most vulnerable structural element of rural buildings exposed to flash floods.The failure of a URM wall indicates damage to rural buildings in flash floods.Based on the yield line theory of out-of-plane damage of URM walls and the virtual work method,brittle failure criteria for URM walls under the impact of flash floods were established.According to the field investigation data of the 26 June 2020 flash flood event in Damawu Gully and the corresponding simulation results of FLO-2D,the disaster-causing process was analysed,and the failure criteria were validated.Three building parameters were identified to influence the flood-resistance of URM walls,including the mortar grade,the span-to-height ratio of the wall,and the number of floors of the rural building.The results showed that the cause of the 26June disaster was the diversion of a 50-year flash flood into the residential community on the alluvial fan.The affected buildings were constructed with hollow blocks and lacked flood-resistance reinforcement.The critical failure depth of a URM wall restrained at the top by ring beams(RBs)under hydrostatic load conditions is 1.17 to 1.20 times greater than that of a URM wall without RBs,and the difference is even more pronounced when lowerstrength mortar is used.The flood-resistance of a URM wall constructed with Mb 7.5 mortar and restrained by RBs is almost as strong as that of a URM wall constructed with Mb 20 mortar and without RBs.The span-to-height ratio of a URM wall should not be greater than 1.875 in this case.However,the flood-resistance of a URM wall with RB restraint is almost independent of the span-to-height ratio.The brittle fracture energy of masonry mortar is more crucial to the flood-resistance of 4-edge restrained URM walls if L/Z>1.875.The flood-resistance of the URM wall of the first storey increases linearly with the number of floors.Single-storey rural buildings should be given priority to the use of high-grade masonry mortar and high-density blocks to improve flood-resistance.The failure criteria and the influence laws of building parameters on the flood-resistance of URM walls can provide references for flash flood mitigation and flood-resistance reinforcement of rural buildings in mountainous regions of Southwest China.

Seismic fragility assessment of load‐bearing soft‐brick unreinforced masonry piers

Unreinforced masonry(URM)made with soft bricks comprises a large percentage of the building stock in devel-oping countries.However,the poor performance of URM piers during earthquakes has led to renewed interest in understanding their behavior under lateral loads.Little experimental data is available on the seismic response,analysis,and design of URMs made of soft bricks.In this study,the micro-modeling technique is used to simulate the in-plane behavior of load-bearing,soft-brick URM piers.The parameters required in the constitutive models are obtained from material tests and used to develop a calibrated numerical model of the URM piers.Piers with various aspect ratios subjected to various axial stresses are numerically modeled to obtain monotonic and cyclic responses,and their critical displacement limit states are identified.Changes in the failure modes of masonry piers with variations in the aspect ratio and axial stress are established.Load-bearing piers exhibit three distinct failure modes:bed sliding,diagonal shear cracking,and flexure,depending on the aspect ratio and axial stress.The seismic fragility of each pier failure type is examined using nonlinear time history analyses.The results show that bed-sliding piers collapse at extremely low PGA levels.Piers failing through diagonal shear cracking also fail at low PGA levels.Flexural piers can resist seismic forces up to a slightly higher PGA level and thus are the last to collapse.The results also indicate that the effect of uncertainty in ground motions is more significant than the effect of variability in the masonry pier capacities.

Confined masonry as practical seismic construction alternative-the experience from the 2014 Cephalonia Earthquake

During August 1953 three strong earthquakes of magnitude ranging from 6.3 to 7.2 shook the Ionian Island of Cephalonia （Kefalonia）, Greece, and destroyed almost the entire building stock of the Island which consisted primarily of traditional unreinforced masonry （URM） houses. The authorities went on to restructuring of the building stock, using a structural system that is most like what is known today as confined masonry. They designed about 14 types of one- to two-storey buildings providing the engineers with detailed construction plans. These buildings are known as ＂Arogi＂ buildings （Arogi in Greek meaning Aid）. On the 24th of January and 3rd of February 2014, two earthquakes of magnitude 6.1 and 6.0 struck the island, causing significant soil damages, developing excessively high ground accelerations. Surprisingly, no damage was reported in the ＂Arogi＂ buildings. The seismic behavior of the buildings is examined by FEM linear analysis and it is compared to that of URM structures. Computed results illustrate that the displacements of identical URM buildings would be about twice the magnitudes observed in the corresponding ＂Arogi＂ ones, with the implication that the earthquake sequence of 2014 would have caused critical damage should the type of structure be of the URM type. Furthermore, it is illustrated that this low cost alternative method of construction is a very effective means of producing earthquake resilient structures, whereas further reduction of seismic displacement may be achieved in the order of 50% with commensurate effects on damage potential, when reinforced slabs are used to replace the timber roofs.

Seismic safety evaluation methodology for masonry building and retrofitting using splint and bandage technique with wire mesh

The paper presents a seismic safety assessment of unreinforced masonry(URM)building using two approaches.The first approach uses the‘Pier Analysis’method,based on the concept of equivalent lateral stiffness,where in-plane and out-of-plane actions are considered independently.The second approach is developed with the program SAP2000,where the linear response is evaluated using continuum‘finite element modelling’(FEM).Both methods are compared to evaluate the safety of wall piers and the differences in the outcomes under combined gravitational and lateral seismic forces.The analysis results showed that few wall elements are unsafe in in-plane and out-of-plane tension.It is also observed that the pier analysis method is conservative compared to FEM,but can be used as a simplified and quick tool in design offices for safety assessment,with reasonable accuracy.To safeguard the URM wall piers under lateral loads,a retrofitting technique is adopted by providing vertical and horizontal belts called splints and bandages,respectively,using welded wire mesh(WWM)reinforcement.The study using the‘Pier Analysis’shows that the lateral load capacity of unsafe URM piers can be enhanced up to 3.67 times and made safe using the applied retrofitting technique.Further,the retrofitting design methodology and recommendations for application procedures to on-site URM buildings are discussed in detail.