The Use of Macro Element Approach for the Seismic Risk Assessment of Brick Masonry Buildings

Abstract

Unreinforced masonry [URM] is the dominant structural type for low to moderate-rise buildings in many Balkan countries including Albania. Its dynamic response is highly inelastic, and generally shows high vulnerability to earthquake loading. In literature, there are several methods available to evaluate the seismic performance of these buildings. The choice of the proper model to use is a matter of paramount importance, as many aspects must be considered in order to reach a good approximation of the structural behavior. Within this context, this paper aims to make a seismic risk assessment by following the equivalent frame approach based on macro-element modeling. Due to the resource and time efficient computations, this approach is becoming more popular among the practitioners and field experts in this area and allows simulating the non-linear behavior of masonry buildings. This method is applied to an old masonry building from the Albanian construction practice that is representative of a typical low-rise residential building. Capacity curves of the investigated building are determined to assess the most probable seismic response of the investigated housing construction in the region under selected ground motions. Finally, seismic risk of the tested structures is evaluated.