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~ Pragya Dole 19122048

Shivani Suman Agrawal 19122065
Earthquake
Resistant Masonry
Buildings
1. Un-Reinforced Masonry
2. Basics Of Masonry
3. Units Of Masonry
4. Good Construction Practices
 02

What is
Unreinforced
Masonry?
Unreinforced masonry can be
defined generally as masonry that
contains no reinforcing in it.
03
Basics Of Masonry
Masonry is made of earthen materials and
includes the sub-types listed below.

Brick: clay that is fired to a hard consistency.

Hollow concrete block: “concrete masonry unit”
in the terminology of building codes, commonly
known as “cinder block.”
Hollow clay tile: similar to concrete block in
shape, having hollow cells, but brick-colored.
Stone: can be “dressed” or cut into rectangular
blocks, or used in its natural shape.
Adobe: mud poured into the form of walls or
made into sun-dried bricks.
 04

Basics Of
Masonry
Masonry is a term used to indicate
the part of construction that uses
brick, concrete block, structural
clay tile, and stone. These
materials are held together with Components of unreinforced brick and
mortar. Mortar for masonry unreinforced concrete block walls.

contains lime, sand, and gypsum,

each in the proper proportions.
Cement mix, on the other hand,
has stones in the sand, and does
not contain lime.
“Header” vs “stretcher” courses.
The presence of header courses is
usually the easiest way to tell if a
brick wall is unreinforced.
 UNITS OF
MASONARY
Masonry walls are built using various types of
masonry units, solid or hollow, and mortar.

A hollow masonry unit - is a masonry unit

whose net cross-sectional area m every
plane, parallel to the bearing surface is less
than 75% of the gross cross-sectional area in
the same plane.

A solid masonry unit - is a masonry unit

whose net cross-sectional area in every plane
parallel to the bearing surface is 75% or more
of the gross cross-sectional area in the same
plane. Generally, a clay unit is a solid masonry
unit and a concrete unit is a hollow masonry
05 unit.
 UNITS OF
MASONARY
Concrete Masonry Units – also called cinder blocks,
hollow blocks, and concrete blocks, are masonry
units, solid or hollow, made from concrete.
There are 2 types of masonry units:

•Concrete Building Bricks – is a solid masonry unit

made from Portland cement, water, and suitable
lightweight or normal-weight aggregates with or
without the inclusion of other materials.
•Load-bearing concrete Masonry Units– is a solid or
hollow masonry units made from cement, water, and
mineral aggregates with or without the inclusion of
other materials.

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 Concrete
Masonry Unit
Concrete Masonry Units –

Modular system :
Larger unit than brick
Dimensions related to modular brick
Wide variety of size and color
Lower labor cost than brick
Also called concrete block & cinder block

Additional admixtures: Cinders, Pumice, Lightweight

aggregates
Several shapes & forms are available

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 Concrete
Masonry Unit

Additional admixtures: Cinders, Pumice, Lightweight

aggregates
Several shapes & forms are available

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 Concrete
Masonry Unit

Units that are precast from steel molds

Portland cement
Fine aggregate
Crushed stone or gravel
Water

Types of CMU
Hollow concrete block
Solid concrete block
Concrete brick
Split-face block

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 Concrete
Masonry Unit

10
 Concrete
Masonry Unit

11
 Concrete
Masonry Unit

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 Concrete
Masonry Unit

Hollow Core CMU:

a) Allow for insertion of reinforcing steel & grout

Cores - conducive for reinforcement
Increases load-bearing, resist cracking
b) Widely used in construction
Easily laid for wall construction
More economical:
Larger size - less to lay for the same area
Lay similar to brick
c) Used as a backup wythe for brick or stone
masonry
Accepts plaster, stucco, tile
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 Concrete
Masonry Unit

Bond beam
Bond beam for lintel

14
Corner - Round and square
 Construction method :
Masonary Building
Construction Systems

Unreinforced Masonry :
This form of construction is not considered
earthquake resistant and its use should be
disallowed.

Reinforced Masonry :
Two systems of reinforced masonry are in common
use:
Reinforced hollow units masonry :
This is achieved by placing bed joint reinforcement
of the type illustrated in Figure 10 at 600 mm
centers, and vertical bars as shown in Figure. The
15 holes containing the vertical bars are filled with
concrete as the construction of the wall progresses
 Construction method :
Masonary Building
Reinforced cavity masonry

As shown in Figure, this system consists of two

leaves of masonry units, separated by a cavity into
which the vertical and horizontal reinforcement is
placed and the cavity is filled with either concrete
infill or mortar. The leaves are usually 100 mm thick
and the cavity is 60-100 mm.

Confined Masonry

This is a construction system where masonry

structural walls are surrounded on all four sides
with reinforced concrete
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 GOOD CONSTRUCTION
PRACTICES
In order to ensure structural integrity, vertical confining
elements should be located at all corners and recesses
of the building, and at all joints and wall intersections. In
addition, they should be placed at both sides of any wall
opening whose area exceeds 2.5 m2

Walls
General Principles
• Walls are to be uniformly distributed along each
principal axis of the plan.
• The minimum thickness of structural walls should be
240 mm. The total cross-sectional area of structural
walls along each of the two axes should not be less
than 3% of the gross floor area.
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 GOOD CONSTRUCTION
PRACTICES
Walls
General Principles
• Distances between structural walls of reinforced masonry should not be more
than 6m; distances in confined masonry should not be more than 8m.
• Partitions should be reinforced with 6 mm ø bars placed at the bed joints with
vertical spacing of 600 mm in order to prevent their out-of-plane instability.
Partitions should be anchored to structural walls or tie columns with steel
anchors

Door and window openings

The sizes and positions of wall openings have strong effect on the in-plane
resistance of masonry shear walls. When subjected to seismic loads, stress
concentration takes place in the opening zones, causing cracking and deterioration of
masonry.
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 GOOD CONSTRUCTION
PRACTICES
Door and window openings

In order to improve the behavior of masonry buildings when subjected to

earthquakes, the following requirements should be met:
• Openings should, where possible, be located in those walls which are subjected to
smaller intensity of vertical gravity loads.
• An opening should be located not closer than 600 mm to the inside corner of
its wall.
• On each storey, openings should be located in the same position along the
vertical line.
• In order to provide uniform distribution of resistance and stiffness in two
orthogonal directions, openings should be located symmetrically in the plan of
the building.
• The tops of openings in the storey should be at the same horizontal level.

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 GOOD CONSTRUCTION
PRACTICES
Lintels

Lintels should have a minimum of 250 mm bearing length at both ends to prevent local
collapse due to the crushing of supports during an earthquake.
The width of a lintel should not be less than150 mm. If the distance between the top of the
lintel and the underside of the beam above is less than 60 cm, the two should be united as
shown in Figure 15-a. In the case of openings larger in area than 2.5 m2, the lintel should
be anchored to the tie columns as shown in Figure 15-b.

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 GOOD CONSTRUCTION
PRACTICES

Double-Leaf Walls

• The traditional stone masonry construction with two outer layers of uncoursed
irregularly sized rubble stones with an inner infill consisting of smaller pieces
of stone bound together with lime mortar is not recommended in earthquake
zones.
• Generally speaking, single-leaf walls should be preferred to double-leaf walls.
Double-leaf cavity walls, where the cavity is filled with concrete, should be
preferred to normal cavity walls, since they ensure monolithic behaviour of the
wall under seismic conditions.

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 GOOD CONSTRUCTION
PRACTICES
Tie Beams

The function of tie beams is to transfer horizontal shear induced by the earthquakes
from the floor and roof to the structural walls.
They connect the structural walls with each other and improve the rigidity of the
horizontal diaphragms.
Tie beams should not be smaller in section than 150 x 150 mm.
The reinforcement should not be less than 4 no. 12mm ø with stirrups 6 mm ø at 200
mm centres.
Reinforcement should be spliced and anchored at cornets and wall intersections. Bars
should overlap by a minimum distance of 60 times the diameters of the bars.
Parapets should be reinforced vertically and horizontally.
The reinforcement should be tied in with the reinforcement in the tie beam.

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 GOOD CONSTRUCTION
PRACTICES
Cantilever Slabs and overhangs

These elements can cause harmful vertical vibration during heavy earthquakes. To
reduce this, spans should not exceed those shown in Figure

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 GOOD CONSTRUCTION
PRACTICES
Building Configuration
It is possible to improve the seismic resistance of a building by following these simple
planning principles:
• The plan shape is to be kept simple; the length to width ration should not
exceed 4. If a building longer than this is required, separation joints as shown
in Figure 2 should be introduced. The building structure should be as
symmetrical as possible along each principal axis. A sufficient number of
structural walls, with approximately the same cross-sectional area and
stiffness, should be provided in each direction of the building (Figure 18).

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 GOOD CONSTRUCTION
PRACTICES
If recesses are required, they should not exceed 25% of the overall dimension
in the corresponding direction, see Figure 19.

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 GOOD CONSTRUCTION
PRACTICES
• Number of storeys and maximum building heights are to follow the
recommendations in the table below.

The elevations should be regular (uniform), i.e. top-heavy facades where mass is
concentrated at upper storeys should be avoided as shown in Figure-21.

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 27
How Do
Unreinforced
Masonry Buildings
Behave During
Earthquakes?

Out-of-plane failure of unreinforced masonry walls.

Masonry materials are intrinsically strong
when compressed under the usual gravity
loads but are weak in resisting
earthquake forces, which make materials
flex and also shear; ‘shear’ describes the
tendency for a portion of the wall to slide
vis-à-vis the rest. When an earthquake
shakes an unreinforced masonry building,
it causes the building’s walls to flex out-
of-plane and to shear in-plane .

In-plane failure of unreinforced masonry walls.

 How Do 28
Unreinforced
Masonry Buildings
Behave During
Earthquakes?

Unreinforced masonry is weak in resisting

both of those types of forces. Mortar is
the “glue” that holds the masonry units
together; however, when it eventually
cracks, it does so in a brittle manner,
similar to the way that the bricks crack.
Generally speaking, older masonry
construction was built using much weaker
mortar than current building codes
require. Mortar also tends to deteriorate
in strength over time more than the
masonry units themselves do.
29 Building Codes and
Standards
This type of construction is covered by several Indian
Standards. IS 1905-1987 Code of practice for
structural uses of unreinforced masonry (3rd edition)
was first published in 1961. IS 4326-1993 Earthquake
resistant design and construction of buildings (2nd
revision) was first published in 1967 and has several
sections pertaining to unreinforced brick construction.
Earthquake resistance is also addressed in IS 13828-
1993 Improving earthquake resistance of low strength
masonry buildings - Guidelines, and IS 13935-1993
Guidelines for repair and seismic strengthening of
buildings. The year the first code/standard addressing
this type of construction issued was 1967. The most
recent code/standard addressing this construction type
issued was 1993.
 History of Past Earthquakes 30

Roof Collapse Caused by the Wall

Collapse (1993 Killari Earthquake)

Faillure of Brick Masonry Walls Wall Corner Cracking Partial Building Collapse in
in the 1997 Jabalpur Earthquake (1993 Killari Earthquake) the 1997 Jabalpur
Earthquake
Collapse of Brick Masonry Buildings
in the 2001 Bhuj Earthquake
31 Seismic Features
Seismic
Strengthening
Techniques

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Seismic Strengthening
Techniques

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Repairs Of
Existing 34
Construction

Repair of Wall Cracks by Epoxy Injection

(Source: IAEE 1986)
Retrofitting Old
Brick Buildings

URMs are vulnerable to damage and

collapse during earthquakes because the
parapets and walls are not secured to the
roofs and floors. Parapets can break away,
falling into the street and putting
pedestrians in danger. Walls can break
away and lead to full or partial collapse.
Seismically retrofitting a URM reduces this
danger.

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Thank You