APPLICATION OF DISCRETE ELEMENT METHOD TO SEISMIC ASSESMENT OF ADOBE BUILDINGS BY CASE STUDY OF THE 2003 BAM EARTHQUAKE

In most parts of Zagros area, one type of the traditional settlements is adobe buildings. For instance, mostly of the traditional settlements in both rural and urban areas in the east of Kurdistan Province of Iran are made by adobe and mortar material. As is investigated, mostly of Zagros area has faced by active faults which have caused big earthquakes in past and more probably will cause other seismic events in future. Adobe settlements are very vulnerable in a moderate or high intensity earthquake. On December 26th, 2003 a devastating earthquake occurred in the southeastern Iran, causing a large number of collapsed buildings and human casualties, which mainly was due to the very poor seismic behavior of adobe buildings. In this study, seismic response of an adobe masonry structure is analyzed by using Discrete Element Method, which can demonstrate the simulation of collapse of the structure.