Seismic Performance of a Brick Veneer Steel-Framed House

Construction and Building Materials, 2012

This paper summarises results of an experimental shaking table test program conducted on a single room steel-framed brick veneer house. The Test House was constructed of full scale components and represents current building practices in New Zealand. The primary objective of the test program was to assess the performance of the brick veneer walls when subjected to out-of-plane earthquake loading, having been previously subjected to in-plane loading which has the potential to weaken the veneer/tie/stud system for subsequent out-of-plane loading. The veneer walls of the Test House incorporated typical geometric features in different directions. The Test House was subjected to varying levels of the El-Centro (ElC) earthquake ranging from moderate Serviceability Limit State (SLS) ground motion to excitation well beyond the design Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCE) for New Zealand. These levels of excitation were selected in order to ascertain the response for specific limit states and compare against minimum performance requirements specified in the New Zealand Earthquake Standard, NZS 1170.5 (2004. Results presented are based on comprehensive measurements including acceleration, drift and differential movements between the structural steel frame and veneer. The Test House performed very well, with no brick loss up to 2.6 times ElC earthquake which is well in excess of all performance requirements. The results from the Test House under the onerous testing program reveal that such form of construction would be expected to exhibit good performance under both serviceability and ultimate conditions in New Zealand.

2011

Canterbury earthquakes a detailed campaign of door to door assessments was conducted in a variety of areas of Christchurch to establish the earthquake performance of residential dwellings having masonry veneer as an external cladding attached to a lightweight timber framing system. Specifically, care was taken to include regions of Christchurch which experienced different levels of earthquake shaking in order to allow comparison between the performance of different systems and different shaking intensities. At the time of the inspections the buildings in the Christchurch region had been repeatedly subjected to large earthquakes, presenting an opportunity for insight into the seismic performance of masonry veneer cladding. In total just under 1100 residential dwellings were inspected throughout the wider Christchurch area, of which 24% were constructed using the older nail-on veneer tie system (prior to 1996) and 76% were constructed using screw fixed ties to comply with the new 1996 standards revision (post-1996), with 30% of all inspected houses being of two storey construction. Of the inspected dwellings 27% had some evidence of liquefaction, ground settlement or lateral spreading. Data such as damage level, damage type, crack widths, level of repair required and other parameters were collected during the survey. A description of the data collection processes and a snapshot of the analysis results are presented within.

Structures Congress 2008, 2008

The performance of domestic cold formed steel framed slructures under earthquake loading is cuqently being investigated as part of a collaborative research project invo~ving The University of Melbourne, BHP Steel and CSIRO. A major part of this research project is lO identify the influence of the main non-slructural components in the most common type of domestic conslruction in Australia, that is brick veneer houses. A typical brick veneer house would have plasterboard as interior lining and brick veneer as exterior cladding. The contributions of the plasterboard and the brick: veneer walls are being assessed. ' In this investigation an extensive racking and dynamic testing program was undertaken on a single room house. This paper presents the details of this testing program. From the racking tests it is concluded that the plasterboard dramatically increases the stiffness, load carrying capacily and damping of wall panels. It was also found that there is load sharing between the diagonal cross braces and the plasterboard. 186 Intro orldwidc ""lestic c "'1provc 1 crent co1-1.lantify 1 • asterbo; ~ds;

Canterbury earthquakes a detailed campaign of door to door assessments was conducted in a variety of areas of Christchurch to establish the earthquake performance of residential dwellings having masonry veneer as an external cladding attached to a lightweight timber framing system. Specifically, care was taken to include regions of Christchurch which experienced different levels of earthquake shaking in order to allow comparison between the performance of different systems and different shaking intensities. At the time of the inspections the buildings in the Christchurch region had been repeatedly subjected to large earthquakes, presenting an opportunity for insight into the seismic performance of masonry veneer cladding. In total just under 1100 residential dwellings were inspected throughout the wider Christchurch area, of which 24% were constructed using the older nail-on veneer tie system (prior to 1996) and 76% were constructed using screw fixed ties to comply with the new 1996 standards revision (post-1996), with 30% of all inspected houses being of two storey construction. Of the inspected dwellings 27% had some evidence of liquefaction, ground settlement or lateral spreading. Data such as damage level, damage type, crack widths, level of repair required and other parameters were collected during the survey. A description of the data collection processes and a snapshot of the analysis results are presented within.

Earthquakes and Structures, 2013

Using of masonry infill as partitions, in flat slab frame buildings is a common practice in many parts of the worlds. The infill is, generally, not considered in the design and the buildings are designed as bare frames. More of fundamental information in the effect of masomary infill on the seismic performance of RC building frames is in great demand for structural engineers. Therefore the main aim of this research is to evaluate the seismic performance of such buildings without (bare frame) and with various systems of the masonary infill. For this purpose, thirteen three dimensional models are chosen and analyzed by SAP2000 program. Nonlinear time history analysis recommended by Egyptian code for seismic load of building structures was used (ECOL 201, 2008) [31]. In this study the stress strain relation model proposed by Crisafulli [7] for the hysteric behaviour of masonary subjected to cyclic loading is used. The results show that the nonstructural masonary infill can impart significant increase global strength and stiffness of such building frames and can enhance the seismic behaviour of flat slab frame building to large extent depending on infill wall system. As a result great deal of inspirit has been obtained on seismic response of such flat slab buildings which enable the structural engineer to determine the optimum position of infill wall between the columns.

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. [DOI: 10.1193/1.4000073] INTRODUCTION

2013

Two earthquakes struck close to Christchurch city in New Zealand generating high level ground excitations that caused severe geotechnical effects and widespread structural damage. This paper focuses on damage to timber and masonry that resulted from the geotechnical effects experienced including liquefaction, lateral spreading, rock fall, horizontal and vertical ground accelerations. Light timber framed construction performed well for life safety but there were a large number seriously damaged, heavy masonry caused significant problems when inadequately reinforced. Changes to the construction standards are needed to improve foundation requirements and lateral wall bracing. Earth building damage to modern houses is discussed in reference to the New Zealand Earth Building Standards, and particularly the non-specific design clauses which specify a consistent reinforcing approach. Double skin pressed earth brick and earth brick veneers performed badly and will be excluded in a future re...

Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics, 2009

This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation carried out to investigate the seismic performance of a two storey brick masonry house with one room in each floor. A half-scale building constructed using single wythe clay brick masonry laid in cement sand mortar and a conventional timber floor and timber roof clad with clay tiles was tested under earthquake ground motions on a shaking table, first in the longitudinal direction and then in the transverse direction. In each direction, the building was subjected to different ground motions with gradually increasing intensity. Dynamic properties of the system were assessed through white noise tests after each ground motion. The building suffered increasing levels of damage as the excitations became more severe. The damage ranged from cracking to global/local rocking of different piers and partial out-of-plane failure of the walls. Nevertheless, the building did not collapse under base excitations with PGA up to 0.8g. General behaviour of the tested building model during the tests is discussed, and fragility curves are developed for unreinforced masonry buildings based on the experimental results.

2016

Significant research has been conducted to establish the seismic capacity of unreinforced clay brick masonry buildings in Australia. In this paper, we consider modern and older existing construction typical of Australia. The paper presents results of laboratory tests on large scale walls, in-situ tests of walls in houses, and analytical predictions to estimate the level of damage that could be expected in a range of earthquake scenarios in Australia to support our conclusion that even a modest M6.0 earthquake within 10km of any capital city in Australia poses a significant life safety hazard to the public and a financial exposure to the nation in the order of $10 Billion.