A territorial scale analysis based on a map-oriented database for the out-of-plane seismic behaviour of masonry structures

Abstract

Since 1986, earthquakes have occurred in East Groningen, but most buildings made of unreinforced masonry have not been designed for earthquakes, which must now withstand magnitude 4 earthquakes. This has created an urgent need to assess large amounts of buildings in a fast but reliable manner. The out-of-plane behaviour is important for seismic assessments of unreinforced masonry buildings. Although the most accurate analysis method to determine the out-of-plane response of such walls is non-linear time-history analysis (NLTH), non-linear kinematic analysis (NLKA) provides a simple, fast but still reliable solution due to the computational difficulties of NLTH for structures constructed of unreinforced masonry. In this paper, the out-of-plane behaviours of masonry structures are up-scaled from a component scale to a provincial scale in a multi-scale manner. A map-oriented database is established to describe both local behaviours of walls and global behaviours of a province. The out-of-plane assessment by non-linear kinematic analysis (NLKA) is automated via the database without further calculations after the static analysis. The database provides a solid guidance to determine which detailed assessment methods will be adopted with limited data before a FEM model is built.