Seismic fragility models for typical non-engineered URM residential buildings in Malawi

Malawi is an earthquake-prone country that lies within the East African Rift. A large proportion of its population lives in non-engineered single-storey constructions made clay bricks and low-strength mortar. Walls are typically single-skin often lack adequate wall-to-wall connections, leaving them vulnerable to seismic actions. This work reports a comprehensive study on fragility unreinforced masonry buildings housing stock. The probability exceeding different levels in-plane/out-of-plane damage estimated by considering aleatory epistemic uncertainties problem. Inter-building intra-building variability accounted for adopting material test results building survey data collected Malawi. in-plane capacity walls calculated through finite element model considers orthotropic properties masonry. out-of-plane computed using analytical solution, developed one way bending. In addition, record-to-record considered. new country-specific models result more conservative global estimates, which reflects high vulnerability Malawian buildings. These fragilities can be integrated into catastrophe modelling platforms earthquake risk assessment wider region.