Traditional High-rise Unreinforced Masonry Buildings: Modeling and Influence of Floor System Stiffening on Their Overall Seismic Response

ABSTRACT

This paper summarizes a study whose primary objectives were to develop a model for nonlinear static analysis of unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings, considering the flexibility of the floor system and analyzing the influence of stiffening the floor system on the overall seismic response of such buildings. With this aim, a six-story building typical of the Eixample-Barcelona district was used as a case study. All the macro-elements, those that constitute the walls and the floor system, were developed with one-dimensional spring elements. The influence of stiffening the floor system was analyzed by applying conventional stiffening interventions to the two-floor systems common in the Eixample-Barcelona district. The overall seismic response was evaluated in terms of modal parameters, the characteristics of the pushover curves and the deformed shape of the floors. The outcomes are discussed in relation to recent studies and explained in the context of previous studies. Finally, in the two unstiffened cases of the prototype building, the stiffening of the floor system slightly increases in fundamental periods, slightly to moderately increases in base shear capacities, and significantly decreases in displacement capacities.

KEYWORDS:

• Flexible floor
• pushover analysis
• spring-type macro-elements
• stiffening of floors
• traditional URM buildings

Acknowledgments

We thank Lucille Banham for her assistance in the preparation of the English manuscript. This research was partially funded by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) of the Spanish Government and by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of the European Union (EU) through projects referenced as: CGL2015-65913-P (MINECO/ERDF, EU) and EFA158/16/POCRISC (INTERREG/POCTEFA. EU). Juan Jiménez-Pacheco, sponsored by the University of Cuenca, obtained a scholarship from the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (SENESCYT), Government of Ecuador, for doctoral studies in the Earthquake Engineering program of the UPC-Barcelona Tech. The main results presented and discussed in this work correspond to his doctoral thesis. Some of these results have been refined and complemented as part of a research project “Capacidad sismorresistente y modos de falla de edificaciones de mampostería no reforzada típicas del Centro Histórico de Cuenca” (Seismic-resistant capacity and failure modes of non-reinforced masonry buildings typical of the Historic Center of Cuenca), carried out by the Seismic Network of the Austro (Red Sísmica del Austro), with the sponsorship and funding of the Research Direction of University of Cuenca (Dirección de Investigación de la Universidad de Cuenca).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.