Seismic Response of Full‐Scale Five‐Story Reinforced‐Masonry Building

To verify new design guidelines for reinforced‐masonry (RM) buildings in seismic zones, a full‐scale five‐story RM research building was tested at the University of California, San Diego, under simulated seismic loads. These new design guidelines, developed by the Technical Coordinating Committee for Masonry Research (TCCMAR), combine limit state and capacity design principles to ensure ductile seismic response. Design and analysis models developed under TCCMAR for individual components and subassemblages were extended to the complete system to predict the seismic response of the five‐story research building, and full‐scale seismic‐simulation test data were used to provide detailed experimental response data for model verification. This first U.S. full‐scale five‐story seismic‐simulation test under laboratory conditions showed that even stiff‐structural‐wall‐type masonry buildings can be designed to exhibit large ductilities under extreme seismic loads by controlled inelastic flexural behavior in predetermined locations, and that analysis and design models exist that can predict the overall seismic response of the complete structural system.