Jason Ingham / Francisco Galvez
Detailed Seismic Assessment of Complex Unreinforced Masonry Buildings (afternoon seminar)
Using the national seismic assessment methodology, all Unreinforced Masonry Buildings (URM) will initially be profiled as being earthquake prone, and hence will require further assessment to establish their likely seismic capacity. Section C8 is the national guidance document on how to undertake a detailed seismic assessment of URM buildings using a consistent methodology. However, section C8 was intentionally composed for use on relatively simple URM buildings, and currently no guidance is provided for how to address more complex structural configurations that are outside the scope of Section C8.
Recently a seismic assessment methodology for URM buildings has been developed in Europe, referred to as the Macroblock approach. This methodology is derived from the highly repeatable nature of failure modes observed in URM buildings after large earthquakes, and the application of a simplified mechanics-based approach to calculate the capacity of various macroblock failure modes. The method is fully consistent with section C8 but can be generalised to any building form, such that the Macroblock method is an effective tool for extension of Section C8 to address more complex building configurations.
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| Seminar Macroblocks.pdf | |
