Projects - Spotlight

NEESR: Enhancement of Seismic Performance and Design of Partially-Grouted Reinforced Masonry Buildings

Reinforced masonry constitutes about 10% of all low-rise buildings in the US. Many of them are commercial, industrial, and school buildings. While most of the reinforced masonry structures constructed in the West Coast are fully grouted, almost all reinforced masonry construction in the rest of the country, including regions of high seismic risk, has partial grouting to make it economically competitive. However, the seismic performance of partially grouted reinforced masonry wall systems has not been sufficiently studied and is not well understood due to the complexity of their behavior, which can be attributed to the heterogeneity and anisotropy introduced by masonry blocks, block cavities, mortar joints, and grouted cells. This project is to enhance the understanding of the behavior of partially grouted masonry structures at the system as well as component level, and develop and validate economically competitive, improved, design details and retrofit methods to enhance their seismic performance...

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