Unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings exhibited extreme vulnerability during past earthquakes though these are shelters of majority population in many earthquake prone developing countries. Most of the current retrofitting techniques used for such structures are either expensive or requires highly skilled labor or sophisticated equipment for implementation. On the other hand, the retrofitting technique proposed in this paper is economical and easy-to-apply. This paper aims at examining the performance of the retrofitting technique using polypropylene (PP) band. The displacement controlled lateral deformation has been investigated experimentally. The monotonic load-displacement behaviors of URM wall and the wall retrofitted with PP band are compared. It was found that URM wall retrofitted by PP band improves the ductility and energy absorption capacity by three times, and two times, respectively. Performance of a full-scale masonry building retrofitted with PP band in Nepal during last Gorkha earthquake of April 25, 2015, has also been presented in this paper. It was observed that the PP band retrofitted masonry building survived while the nearby many buildings experienced severe damage and some of them collapsed. This study demonstrates the efficacy and practicability of use of PP band for improving seismic resistance of URM structure.

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Steel pipelines used for transporting oil and gas can develop various damages such as mechanical damages, corrosion, wrinkle, and crack. One of the mechanical damages is a dent with or without other defects such as corrosion, gouge, and crack. The dent without other defect is often referred to as plain dent. Depending on the severity, a dent can lead to a failure of a field linepipe. The strain concentration in a dented pipeline wall can be used to determine the level of severity of a dent. Hence, a research program was undertaken at the Centre for Engineering Research in Pipelines (CERP) using full-scale tests and finite element analyses. The prime objective of this research was to determine comparative strain distributions in and around the dent and locations of high strains developed from the denting process. This information will help the pipeline operators to determine the severity of dents in their field linepipes. Hence, the outcome of this research will allow the pipeline operators to take an informed decision on whether or not an imminent remedial action for the dented segment of the line pipe is required. This paper presents test data and finite element simulation to discuss the locations and values of crucial strains in dents.