Dynamic Analysis of Historical Brick Masonry House

Abstract

Brick masonry constructions are very common in many areas in the world and their failure in earthquakes has been the cause of many deaths. Since human safety is main issue of disaster management, people are more concerned about the structural assessment and strengthening of those constructions. One historical brick masonry house located in Kathmandu world heritage site is modeled by FEM (finite element method) and analyzed in El Centro earthquake ground motions. Bricks are modeled as solid elements and the interfaces between the brick units are modeled as zero thickness joint elements. Then, non-linear analyses of the house are applied satisfying the famous Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion. The result shows that the house is very weak and sustains large deformation in El Centro 1940 Earthquake. A strengthening solution modifying the connections of existing elements and adding wooden frame inside the house can reduce the deformations significantly.