Abstract—Past earthquakes have shown that seismic events may incur large economic losses in buildings. FEMA P-58 provides engineers a practical tool for the performance seismic assessment of buildings. In this study, FEMA P-58 is applied to two typical Italian pre-1970 reinforced concrete frame buildings, characterized by plain rebars as steel reinforcement and masonry infills and partitions. G...

Building stones and clay-rich Nile mud were ancient Egypt’s main raw construction materials. While the mud was easily accessible along the Nile river valley, the immense quantities of the different stone materials used for construction of the famous pyramids, precious temples and tombs needed a systematic quarrying organization, well arranged transport logistics over extreme distances and a hig...

Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) products are used as an alternative to traditional methods for strengthening and retrofitting concrete and masonry structures to resist blast loads. The development and experimental validation of a methodology for modeling the response of blast loaded concrete and masonry structural components retrofitted with FRP, as well as corresponding response criteria, is im...

Accurate modeling of masonry has been a major concern of the researchers in the past decades. Besides reinforced and unreinforced masonry structures, masonry can be found in frame structures as infill panels which are used as partitions and/or external walls. These elements role as a part of structure and introduce a large degree of nonlinearity into the system. In this study, a micro-modeling ...

Masonry dwellings and small commercial buildings are located in areas as diverse as Adelaide, Australia, Wellington, New Zealand, and Memphis, Tennessee. The number of these masonry buildings and their design presents a danger to the human population and a potential economic loss when they are subjected to an earthquake. The dwellings of interest are constructed from unreinforced masonry. They ...

This paper presents a contribution for the safety assessment of historical masonry buildings under seismic loading. Three different simplified safety indexes (in-plan area ratio, area to weight ratio and base shear ratio) are analyzed, taking into account a large sample of fifty-eight Portuguese churches. The sample of building has been organized according to the seismic zonation, from high to ...

Masonry buildings are generally vulnerable to seismic action, as evidenced extensively in past earthquakes. In order improve their performance, several modifications have been introduced, such reinforcing or confining the masonry. This paper presents a analysis and fragility assessment procedure for non-engineered masonry building typologies, employing applied element method (AEM). Compared wit...

This paper presents a novel interface element for the geometric and material nonlinear analysis of unreinforced brick-masonry structures. In the proposed modelling approach, the blocks are modelled using 3D continuum solid elements, while the mortar and brick-mortar interfaces are modelled by means of the 2D nonlinear interface element. This enables the representation of any 3D arrangement for ...

This study carried out comparative seismic performance of reinforced concrete frames infilled by masonry walls with different heights. Partial and fully infilled reinforced concrete frames were modeled for the research objectives and the analysis model for a bare reinforced concrete frame was also established for comparison. Non–linear static analyses for the studied frames were performed to in...

Masonry structures are complex systems that require detailed knowledge and information regarding their response under seismic excitations. Appropriate modelling of a masonry structure is a prerequisite for a reliable earthquake-resistant design and/or assessment. However, modelling a real structure with a robust quantitative (mathematical) representation is a very difficult, complex and computa...