Numerical Study of Pier-Wall Connections in Typical Dutch URM Buildings

Abstract

In recent years, the seismic risk in the north of the Netherlands has increased due to gas extraction. Since 2014, the Delft University of Technology started a research program to assess the seismic response of unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings. The Dutch URM buildings are characterized by slender piers and transverse walls. In common practice, the connections between piers and transverse walls are often modelled as rigid, but in real structures these connections may exhibit different behaviour. Especially, since the 1980s, calcium silicate element masonry has been commonly used in Dutch buildings, and vertical continuous joints are present between transverse walls. For this reason, it appears essential to assess the connection strength properties, since its failure can significantly reduce the seismic performance of the entire structure. The first part of this work investigates and compares different numerical approaches to describe the nonlinear behaviour of masonry under lateral loads, simulating seismic action. The second part specifically focuses on the critical issues related to the modelling of vertical connections of Dutch URM buildings. A sensitivity study of the frictional parameters is performed to analyze the influence of the strength of the glued connection on the global response of the URM structure.

Full document

References

[1] Rots, J. Structural Masonry: An Experimental/Numerical Basis for Practical Design Rules. A.A Balkema (1997).

[2] Raijmakers, T. M. J. and Van der Pluijm, R. Stability of the calcium silicate piers. TNOBouw Report BI-91-0219 (1992).

[3] Esposito, R., Terwel, K., Ravenshorst, G., Schipper, R., Messali, F., and Rots, J. Cyclic pushover test on an unreinforced masonry structure reseambling a typical Dutch terraced house. In Proceedings of the 16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Santiago,Chile (2017), pp. 1-12.

[4] Esposito, R., Jafari, S., Ravenshorst, G. J. P., Schipper, H. R., and Rots, J. G. Influence of the behavior of calcium silicate brick and element masonry on the lateral capacity of structures. In 10th Australasian Masonry Conference, Sydney, Australia (2018).

[5] Messali, F., Pari, M., Esposito, R., Rots, J.G., and Den Hertog, D. Blind predictions of a cyclic pushover test on a two-storey masonry assemblage: a comparative study. In Proceedings of the 16th European Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Thessaloniki, Greece (2018).

[6] Jafari, S., Esposito, R., and Rots, J. G. From Brick to Element: Investigating the Mechanical Properties of Calcium Silicate Masonry. RILEM Bookseries, 18, (2019), p.p. 596–604.

[7] Ravenshorst G., Esposito R., Schipper R., Messali F., Tsouvalas A., Lourens E-M. and Rots, J. Structural behaviour of a calcium silicate brick masonry assemblage: quasi-static cyclic pushover and dynamic identification test. Delft University of Technology, Department of Structural Engineering. Version 5, 21 October 2016 (2016).

[8] Magenes, G., and Penna, A. Seismic Design and Assessment of Masonry Buildings in Europe: Recent Research and Code Development Issues. In Proceedings of 9th Australasian Masonry Conference, Queenstown, New Zealand (2011).

[9] Calderini, C., Cattari, S., and Lagomarsino, S. In-Plane Strength of Unreinforced Masonry Piers. Earthquake Engineering and Structural Dynamics (2008), 38(2), p.p. 243–267.

[10] Sacco, E., Addessi, D., Sab, K., New trends in mechanics of masonry, Meccanica, (2018), 53 (7), p.p. 1565-1569.

[11] Lourenço, P.B. Computations on historic masonry structures. Prog. Struct. Engng Mater. (2002). 4:301–319.

[12] Lourenço, P.B. Computational strategies for masonry structures. PhD Thesis. Delft University of Technology (1996).

[13] Calderini, C., and Lagomarsino, S. Continuum Model for In-Plane Anisotropic Inelastic Behavior of Masonry. Journal of Structural Engineering (ASCE), (2008), 134(2), p.p. 209–220.

[14] Addessi, D., Marfia, S., Sacco, E., Toti, J. Modeling approaches for masonry structures. Open Civil Engineering Journal, (2014), 8 (1), pp. 288-300

[15] DIANA FEA User’s Manual. TNO Building and Construction Research. (2019).

[16] Mariani, V., Messali, F., Hendriks, M. and Rots, J. Numerical modelling and seismic analysis of Dutch masonry structural components and buildings. In Proceedings of the 16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, Santiago, Chile (2017).