Experimental Seismic Performance Evaluation of Unreinforced Brick Masonry Buildings

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study on the performance of a full-scale unreinforced brick masonry (URM) building system tested under quasi-static loading at the Earthquake Engineering Centre, University of Engineering and Technology in Peshawar, Pakistan. The configuration and materials used in the single-story URM building are typical of those found in the northern areas of Pakistan affected by the 2005 Kashmir earthquake. This study is a part of ongoing research for the earthquake impact assessment of the city of Abbottabad. Combined shear and flexural behavior was observed during the test. The experimental data was analyzed and is presented in the form of force-deformation hysteresis loops and envelope curves. Based on the measured data, different performance levels have been established. The measured response of the test structure is also compared to the estimated response obtained using three capacity evaluation procedures and the two are found to be in good agreement.