The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Shaking table study of single-story masonry houses, Volume 3: Summary, conclusions and recommendations

Clough, Ray W.; Mayes, Ronald L.; Gülkan, Polat

UCB/EERC-79/25, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1979-09-01, 106 pages (515/G85/1979/v.3)

Recent earthquake damage to masonry construction underscores the need for an improved understanding of the seismic response of these structures and the establishment of rational reinforcement requirements. An experimental investigation aimed at determining reinforcement requirements for single-story masonry dwellings in Uniform Building Code Seismic Zone 2 areas of the U.S. has been conducted at the Univ. of California, Berkeley. The experimental results of the investigation completed to date are presented in Volumes 1 and 2 of a series of three reports, while this third volume contains conclusions from the tests as well as tentative recommendations for the reinforcement requirements for masonry houses based on realistic seismic conditions for Zone 2. The studies performed to date include the testing of four masonry houses, employing both unreinforced and partially reinforced wall panels, assembled to form 16-ft-square models of typical masonry houses. The masonry units utilized in the construction of all test structures were full-sized units. Each house was provided with a timber truss roof structure with weights attached in order to obtain realistic loads on the bearing walls. This third volume, which is self-contained, summarizes the observed response mechanisms of the structures tested. The focus of the tentative recommendations in this volume is the definition of seismic loads for Zone 2 in the context of the shaking table tests. Zone 2 is divided into two subzones; one subzone has lower seismic risk and does not require any reinforcement, whereas reinforcement is recommended for the other higher risk subzone. For the experimental results, see "Shaking table study of single-story masonry houses, Volume 1: Test structures 1 and 2" (UCB/EERC-79/23) and "Shaking table study of single-story masonry houses, Volume 2: Test structures 3 and 4" (UCB/EERC-79/24), by Gulkan, Mayes, and Clough, published Sept. 1979.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-79-25.pdf (7 MB)