Investigating the Effect of Changing the Span Length and the Number of Floors on the Seismic Parameters of the Confined Masonry Wall

Non-reinforced brick structures around the world, especially in Iran and in small towns, have a major part of building types, and usually, these types of structures are major weaknesses in the earthquake. So, the vulnerability of these structures under earthquake, has particular features. Also, most of the structures that have historical significance are built using masonry. Hence, analyzing the behavior of these structures, the breaks, and assess, the risk factors on the mechanisms have a significant influence on the selection of appropriate methods of rehabilitation and retrofitting masonry buildings. Studies on masonry buildings after earthquake show that fragility of materials and non-continuity of these buildings are a main factor of destruction at the time of earthquake. There are similar damages occurred by earthquake on these structures regarding to the kind of construction of these structures. Nowadays, damage index is used as a tool for accurate evaluation of structure, and decision-making to determine the amount of damages to structures, the advantage of the damage indexes is identifying structure condition, besides identifying the amount of damages, and also is used as a criterion for decision-making. In this research, we are investigating mechanisms broke and vulnerability brick buildings. The comparison of data shows that by reducing the maximum acceleration of earthquakes for different seismic zones, the damage to the walls decreases so that for the medium and low seismic zones, none of the walls reach the limit of irreparable damage. Moreover, it is added to the number of walls that have minor damage.

Investigating the Effect of Changing the Span Length and the Number of Floors on the Seismic Parameters of the Confined Masonry Wall Keywords:

Masonry structures , Seismic vulnerability , Damage index , Brick walls