Much of India is prone to substantial earthquakes, and vulnerability associated with both unreinforced masonry (URM) and improperly built reinforced concrete (RC) frame constructions has been unmasked by past earthquakes. URM structures present a severe hazard in earthquake-prone regions. And non-engineered RC structures can lead to devastating consequences. Housing for families in the economically weaker sector and the lower-income group is undoubtedly challenging to such events. Regardless of residing in a city or village, everyone desires a house with masonry walls and RC roof, just like the buildings in larger urban areas. Confined masonry (CM) construction, which is a popular building system in many countries, can fulfil this need of society. Though CM building started informally, the seismic performance is found to be really well in several destructive earthquakes. This type of construction combines the advantages of URM and RC structures and does not need sophistication required in RC construction. In this paper, the seismic response of URM, infilled RC frame and CM buildings is compared using past seismic performance and literature. It is concluded that confined masonry is a better alternative for sustainable housing in seismic-prone regions of India.
Confined masonry (CM) is an effective building construction technology for low-tech construction in seismic-prone regions. This paper focuses on developing a numerical model to study the in-plane seismic behaviour of CM wall. A half-scaled CM wall specimen is designed based on Mexican practice and tested under a combination of vertical load and in-plane cyclic load up to failure. Based on that a three dimensional (3D) finite element macro-modelling technique is developed using the commercial software package ABAQUS, where the masonry panel, RC tie-frame, and reinforcements are discretely modelled. The strength and stiffness degradation of masonry and concrete is defined using Concrete Damaged Plasticity (CDP), which is a damaged plasticity-based continuum constitutive model. All the input data in the numerical model are based on experimental test results and data obtained from past literature or inverse fitting, with justification. From the analysis, it is observed that the numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental. Therefore, the proposed model can be successfully practiced to model confined masonry walls.
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