Earthquake Performance Assessment of a Low-rise URM Building

Abstract

In the present paper, seismic performance assessment of a typical low-rise unreinforced masonry (URM) building, which has been built in accordance with template designs in Albania, has been performed. For this purpose, one of the most widely used template designed URM building typology has been selected as a good representatives of residential building stock. This type shows some particular features, typical of the traditional construction techniques at that time which could be identified as the additional potential damage sources. The building was designed and constructed in 1960 and contains details which are typical of that construction period of the region. Material properties are assessed based upon experimental test results. Then, the buildings is modeled and analyzed as 3-D assembly of finite elements. The earthquake ground motion to be used in performance assessment is determined through probabilistic seismic hazard assessment. The seismic response of the buildings has been evaluated for various earthquake levels based on Eurocode 8 and FEMA 440 guidelines. Upon the evaluation of the obtained results here for the earthquake performance of this type of buildings, useful conclusions are drawn on the strength and nonlinear behavior of masonry subjected to earthquake actions.