Seismic Assessment of Masonry Buildings Using Nonlinear Analysis

Masonry is one of the most commonly used materials not only in Albania but also worldwide for the construction of low to mid rise buildings. Recent strong earthquakes in different countries have shown that masonry buildings suffered severe damage and caused loss of lives. Therefore it is important to assess the seismic performance of these buildings and based upon this evaluation, techniques should be developed for the strengthening of building stock against future earthquake damages. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the seismic performance of three residential buildings with selected template designs in Albania considering the nonlinear behavior of masonry. A nonlinear modeling method is developed in SAP2000 software and calibrated by 3Muri software. The capacity curves of the investigated buildings were determined by pushover analyses conducted in two principal directions. Seismic performance evaluation was carried out in accordance with the FEMA440 guidelines. The graphical-analytical procedure described there is used for performance evaluation. The analysis shows that two out of three selected buildings do not satisfy the required performance levels.