Appropriate Strengthening Technologies for the Mitigation of Seismic Vulnerability of Bhutanese Vernacular Stone Masonry Architecture

ABSTRACT

Bhutanese vernacular stone masonry architecture proved highly vulnerable to the recent seismic events affecting Bhutan since 2009. The isolation of rural communities, due to the site geomorphology, the precarious roads networks condition, the local labour limited skills, and the scarce resources availability, largely influence the applicability of strengthening technologies for traditional stone masonry architecture’s seismic vulnerability mitigation. Following up the collaboration with the Royal Government of Bhutan, within an international research project, the paper aims to analyse the appropriateness and suitability of strengthening intervention strategies to the local context. The identified strategies have been associated with the analysis of the stresses causing the failure mechanisms occurred during the 2009 earthquake and tailored to local construction technologies. A full-scale static test carried-out on a stone masonry-building mock-up, allowed to evaluate its behaviour under static loads. As a final result, the suitability of the interventions has been evaluated through qualitative indicators.

KEYWORDS:

• Bhutan
• full-scale static test
• masonry buildings strengthening retrofitting techniques
• seismic reinforcement technologies
• stone masonry
• vernacular architecture

Acknowledgments

In the framework of the research carried out in Bhutan on stone architecture by the Politecnico di Torino, which is the subject of this contribution, a Master’s Thesis in Architecture has also been developed. “The secular house. A manual for preservation and seismic improvement of vernacular stone dwellings in Bhutan”, by Manuela Reitsma, received in 2021 a commendation of the RIBA President’s Medals in the Dissertation category. The authors wish to acknowledge the participation of Manuela Reitsma in the development of the research work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge the support from the Department of Culture, Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs, and the Department of Engineering Services, Ministry of Works and Human Settlement, The Royal Government of Bhutan. This research work has been developed within the framework of SATREPS Project (Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development) led by Nagoya University, in collaboration with the Royal Government of Bhutan and the Politecnico di Torino and JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (Grant No. 21KK0076).