Page 489 - Advanced Design Examples of Seismic Retrofit of Structures

432 Advanced Design Examples of Seismic Retrofit of Structures

(A) (B)

(C)
FIG. 6.30 Examples of damage to adobe arched roof during the 2005 Zarand earthquake.
(A) Partial collapse of the roof due to out-of-plane motions of the support wall. (B) Complete col-
lapse of the roof. (C) Cracks in the roof caused by unbalanced motions of the support walls. (Photos
taken by Mohammad Yekrangnia.)

buildings. Nevertheless, there are several cases in which out-of-plane failure of
adobe walls resulted in loss of life of the residents of these buildings (Fig. 6.31).

6.4.2.4 Experimental Studies
This section is dedicated to several years of research on seismic performance
improvement of adobe buildings through static-cyclic and shaking table tests.
These tests were performed by a team of researchers from the Sharif University
of Technology (SUT), Tehran, Iran with the financial aid of Housing Founda-
tion of Iran. The static-cyclic tests were performed in a structural laboratory at
the Building and Housing Research Center (BHRC) in Iran and the shaking
table tests were carried out at the Earthquake Engineering Research Center
(EERC) of the SUT.

Specimens’ Description and Retrofit Measures
Static Cyclic Tests Fig. 6.32 shows the geometry of 12 2:3 scale wall speci-
mens for static cyclic tests together with their name for static cyclic tests. In
all the specimens, the thickness of walls is 42cm with 1-cm mud mortar