Seismic Response of Low-Rise Masonry Buildings With Flexible Roof Diaphragms

This study compares the responses from shaking-table testing and analytical predictions evaluated in the context of geometric scaling, to provide a coherent description of the seismic response of low-rise masonry buildings with flexible roof diaphragms. Two half-scale, low-rise reinforced masonry buildings with flexible roof diaphragms are subjected to carefully selected earthquake ground motion on the Tri-axial Earthquake and Shock Simulator at the Construction Engineering Research Laboratory. Damage to the half-scale specimens is assessed using published protocols. Geometric scaling analysis relates response and damage of the half-scale specimens to those of the full-scale prototype structures. Linear elastic modeling is simplified to a generalized two-degrees-of-freedom idealization. Response-spectrum analysis of such an idealization is accurate and justified for prediction of dynamic response of the half-scale specimens and the corresponding full-scale prototype. It is shown that low-rise masonry buildings with flexible roof diaphragms can be designed for seismic loads as single-degree-of- freedom systems, using the degree of freedom associated with the in-plane response of the diaphragm in the building's transverse direction, rather than the degree of freedom associated with the in- plane responses of the shear walls.Corps of Engineers Washington DC is the author of 'Seismic Response of Low-Rise Masonry Buildings With Flexible Roof Diaphragms' with ISBN 9781423523277 and ISBN 142352327X.