Seismic Fragility Assessment and Resilience of Reinforced Masonry Flanged Wall Systems

Abstract

Several experimental and analytical studies have evaluated the seismic response of reinforced masonry (RM) shear walls either as a component (i.e., planar rectangular walls) or as a system (i.e., building consisting planar walls). In the current study, five RM flanged walls were assessed for their seismic performance and collapse capacity. The impact of utilizing flanged walls was assessed and characterized through recent available guidelines. In this respect, a 2-D fiber-based modeling approach has been developed using the Open System for Earthquake Engineering Simulation software. The results indicate that the selected RM flanged walls can satisfy the acceptable criteria proposed by the methodology. The seismic resilience of the archetypes against the expected collapse risk was evaluated in terms of functionality curves before and after the use of the flanges in the walls. Damage levels were considered as performance level functions correlated to earthquake intensity and were used to estimate total loss and recovery time of the archetypes. The selected RM flanged walls showed enhanced earthquake resilience and less damage than rectangular RM shear walls.