A REVIEW ON SEISMIC PERFORMANCE OF MASONRY STRUCTURE DURING PAST EARTHQUAKES

Abstract

The present work investigates the performance of masonry buildings during the most severe past earthquakes both national and international. The majority of the buildings in the affected region were built of masonry. The structure shows different types of damage pattern for low to severe earthquake conditions. Most of the masonry buildings were formed with random or coursed stone and mud brick walls without any reinforcement and confined masonry buildings. Many of these buildings were damaged or had collapsed. Generally three types of failure mechanism define the behaviour of masonry structures namely, sliding shear failure, diagonal shear failure and flexural failure. Confined and reinforced masonry buildings shows relatively good performance in comparison with other masonry buildings. The damages are due to several reasons such as poor construction quality and poor workmanship of the buildings. From the census in India majority (more than 80%) of the buildings is masonry. Thus the present study shows the need of retrofitting of masonry structures in India.