Abstract
A significant number of old unreinforced load-bearing masonry (URM) buildings exist in many countries worldwide, but especially in Europe. In particular, Bosnia and Herzegovina has an important stock of masonry buildings constructed from the 1920s until the 1960s without application of any seismic code, due to their nonexistence at that time. With the 1963 Skopje earthquake, this class of buildings were shown to be rather vulnerable to seismic actions, which exhibited serious damage. This article assesses the seismic vulnerability of a typical multi-storey residential unreinforced load-bearing masonry building located in the heart of Sarajevo, which may be exposed to an earthquake of magnitude up to 6 by Richter’s scale. The buildings of this kind make up to 6% of the entire housing stock in the urban region of Sarajevo, while in Slovenia this percentage is much higher (around 30%). The analysis of a typical building located in Sarajevo revealed its drawbacks and the need for some kind of strengthening intervention to be implemented. Additionally, many structures of this type are overstressed by one to two additional floors (not the case of the analyzed structure) constructed from 1996 onwards. This was due to the massive population increase in the city center of Sarajevo and further increased the vulnerability of these buildings.
Highlights
Bosnia and Herzegovina lie in the heart of South Eastern Europe, which is marked as one of the European regions with rather complex tectonic formations
1), Sarajevo can experience ground acceleration (PGA) with a return period of 475 years (Figure 1), Sarajevo can earthquakes with a peak ground acceleration of 0.18g [3]
The structure has a basement, ground floor, and five storeys, and it was constructed as transversal direction (Y), while walls in the longitudinal (X) direction are weakened by a large an unreinforced masonry building
Summary
Bosnia and Herzegovina lie in the heart of South Eastern Europe, which is marked as one of the European regions with rather complex tectonic formations. Temporary Seismic Code produced in 1964 and later upgraded after the 1969 Banja Luka earthquake (which had a focal depth of only 25 km, and a magnitude of 6.4 by Richter’s scale). This was one of the most devastating earthquakes registered in this region. 1), Sarajevo can experience ground acceleration (PGA) with a return period of 475 years (Figure 1), Sarajevo can earthquakes with a peak ground acceleration of 0.18g [3] Such conditions make this structure rather vulnerable as it was constructed without the application of any seismic seismic measures.
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