Abstract
Un-Reinforced Masonry (URM) buildings are popular all over the world including Sri Lanka because of their durability, low cost, construction easiness and architectural character, need of less skilled labour, eco-friendliness and use of locally available materials such as ashlar or rubble, adobe and brick. However, these buildings have a higher probability of failing under natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis and storm surges, floods, cyclones and landslides. In Sri Lanka, winds, landslides and floods have frequently occurred. In addition, a massive tsunami adversely affected the people in 2004 and its effects to islands on the Indian Ocean have been continued since December, 2004. Minor earthquakes have come off recently with experiences of wall cracks and no deaths. It is also believed that, there is a defused plate boundary in the making some 500 km south of the southern tip of Sri Lanka which might be the cause of these tremors or minor quakes. Further, an earthquake occurred in Colombo area in 1615, has caused around 2000 of human deaths. Therefore investigation of performance of URM buildings against these natural disasters and possible retrofitting methods are increasingly important. In this review study, an attempt is made to identify the performance of URM buildings against natural disasters and identify retrofitting methods that can be applied to existing building, to enhance the strength proper ties of structural components. Common failure mechanisms for URM structures consist of separation of walls at corners, diagonal cracking or vertical cracking in walls, separation of roofing from walls, out-of-plane wall failure, in-plane wall failure, shear cracks and de-lamination. These damages on a wall diminish the service life of building. In addition, different kinds of retrofitting methods: ferrocement, poly propylene mesh and bamboo reinforcement, for URM structures to be seismic resistant are presented. Mechanisms of failure of URM walls and effects of retrofitting techniques to reduce the damage are also discussed. ENGINEER, Vol. 47, No. 03, pp. 71-82, 2014
Highlights
Throughout the centuries, natural disasters have taken a high toll of human lives and caused great property losses all over the world and mostly in developing countries
An attempt is made to identify the performance of Un-Reinforced Masonry (URM) buildings against natural disasters and identify retrofitting methods that can be applied to existing building, to enhance the strength properties of structural components
Weather changes showed that landslides and floods and extreme wind events frequently occur. Forces induced by these effects on URM walls were identified as lateral loads including in-plane and out-ofplane induced by earthquakes and hydrostatic, hydrodynamic, impulsive, impact and buoyancy forces induced commonly by tsunamis and floods
Summary
Throughout the centuries, natural disasters have taken a high toll of human lives and caused great property losses all over the world and mostly in developing countries. In Sri Lanka, natural disasters such as minor earthquakes, tsunami and storm surges, floods, cyclones and landslides are encountered. Sri Lankans were adversely affected by the tsunami created by the earthquake that occurred in the coastal zone near Sumatra Island in December, 2004 with a huge catastrophe to human lives Reasons for such a loss of human lives are that, people have no awareness on behaving in a disaster and the collapse of man-made buildings or structures resulted in most of the deaths. Damage patterns and causes for strength losses in URM buildings due to natural disasters (i.e., earthquakes, tsunami and floods) are identified and presented in this paper. Retrofitting methods that can be applied to unreinforced masonry buildings in Sri Lanka, so as to resist dynamic loads induced by earthquakes, tsunamis and floods are presented
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
