Qualifying the earthquake resilience of vernacular masonry buildings along the Himalayan arc

A Review on Seismic Resilience of Timber Reinforced Structures

“…Slates locally known as "patthal" (local stones), timber of Deodar and Chir tree or various locally available timber (Fig. 6), for mortar Clay soil, Khar soil, Lentils and Lime has been used [5,15,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24]32]. Khar soil and Clay soil are used for plastering walls [5,15,18,19,23,24,28].Basic materials which have been used for construction are locally available wood and stone which are good at bearing tension (horizontally) and good in compression respectively resulting in stable and durable structure.…”

“…They are mostly located in the northern parts of Uttarakhand, southern parts of Himachal Pradesh and in Kashmir [15]. Moreover, such structures can be found throughout the Indian subcontinent's northern regions with a slight difference in building style or with some modificationfor exampleTaq-Bhatar and Ekra construction system [5,18,22,26,[28][29][30]. This construction can also be seen in Pakistan's Karakoram mountain range and in some regions of China, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Turkey, Portugal, Britain, France, Germany, South America, Central America,Greece, Italy and other Eastern European countries [21,26,27,30,33,36] .…”

“…Himalayan earthquakes are thought to be triggered by the release of accumulated compressional strain near the Greater Himalaya [3,4]. The Himalayan mountain range extends from the east to the west and includes Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan [5].Major past earthquakes include Kumaun (1720), Garhwal (1803),Kangra (1905), Uttarkashi (1991) andChamoli Earthquake (1999) [6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. The seismic gap between the Kangra Earthquake (1905) and Bihar-Nepal (1934) rupture zones earthquakes run across the Garhwal-Kumaun region of Uttarakhand [7,11].The Earthquake Risk Map of India places Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir in regions of high to very high seismic danger that is Zones IV and V (Fig.…”

“…These typology are also termed as"Cator-and-Cribbage"," Thathara", "Timber Reinforced-Stone Masonry", " Chull Ghar", "Chaukat","Ekra construction system" in Assam "Gaiola construction" in Portugal, "Bahareque" in Central America and "Hımıs in Turkey"(Fig. 3(g-m)) [5,8,15,[18][19][20][24][25][26][27][28][29][30].Koti Banal, Kath Kuniand Dhajji Dewari are mostly found in regions of highaltitude, the residents here remain inaccessible from the world and technology and thus they have been able to preserve the traditions without any modification which they had inherited from their ancestors [5,18,23,28,29,31]. (e) Kath-Kuni Buildings in Uttarkashi [32] (f) Taq masonry tower with timber bands [5](g) Altit Fort Tower, Hunza, Pakistan; "Cator and Cribbage" tower under construction [5] (h)Stone masonry in mud mortar with timber bands, east of Kathmandu, Nepal [5] (i) Bhatar stone Masonry, Pakistan [5] (j) Dhajji Dewari brick masonry, Srinagar [5] (k) Bamboo housing system -Ekra housing, Assam [29] (l)Himis construction, Turkey [22] (m) Gaiola construction, Portugal [28].…”

Enhancement of Himalayan irregular stone masonry buildings for resilient seismic design

“…Schildkamp et al (2020) reviewed masonry codes worldwide, including Nepal, and compared the main design requirements, such as the overall length, width, and height dimensions of the buildings, minimum and/or maximum thickness and dimensions of the elements and openings, and specifications of the main horizontal and vertical reinforcements. Bothara et al (2022) highlighted that current building codes for masonry construction are based on creating box effects in masonry buildings but neglect masonry unit shapes and mortar type. Also, the present buildings do not have stiff floors and roofs.…”