Performance of Masonry Walls Under In-plane Seismic Loading

Despite representing a significant portion of the building stock around the world, many of the existing unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings are seismically vulnerable. This vulnerability has generated a significant interest in assessment, analysis, and upgrading methods. Assessment of URM buildings is often unclear because of uncertainties associated with estimating shear or flexural strength of individual walls [Abrams (1992)]. This paper presents the results of in-plane dynamic tests of masonry walls. The paper examines the effect of effective moment/ shear ratio and the mortar strength on the in-plane failure mode and resistance of masonry walls. In addition, the paper compares the experimental results in terms of lateral resistance with those of existing simple analytical models. The research is needed to provide experimental data about masonry behavior which could be used in calibration or validation of existing/future design models.