Masonry Structures:--

Stone has been used in building construction in India since ancient

times as it is durable and locally available.

There are huge number of stone buildings in the country ranging from
rural houses to Royal places and temples.

In a typical rural stone house, there are thick stone masonry walls
(600mm to 1200mm) built using rounded stones from river beds bound
with mud mort.

These walls are constructed with stones placed in a random manner,

and hence do not have the usual layers (courses) seen in brick walls.

These uncoursed walls have two exterior vertical layers (wythes) of

large stones, filled in between with loose stone rubble and mud mortor.

In many cases these walls support heavy roofs.

Eg. Timber roof with thick mud overlay.

These are considered to be robust but are one of the most deficient building
systems from EQ resistance point of view.

The main deficiencies:--

1. Excessive wall thickness.
2. Absence of any connection between the two wythes of the wall.
3. Use of round stones (instead of shaped ones).

Main patterns of EQ damage:--

• Building/Separation of walls in the horizontal direction in two distinct
wythes.

• Separation of walls at corners and T-junctions.

• Separation of poorly constructed roof from walls and collapse of roof.

• Disintepration of walls and eventual collapse of the whole building.

EQ resistant features (IS13828):--
Masonry buildings are weak against EQ.

IS13828 states that inclusion of special EQRD and construction features

may raise the EQR of the building and reduce the loss of life.

However, Inspite of the sesmic features these buildings may not becom
totally free from heavy damage and even collapse in case of major EQ.

Qualitatively EQR features have been observed to improve the

performance of stone masonry houses during past EQS.

1) Ensure proper construction:--

• Wall thickness must not exceed 450mm.

• Instead of round stone boulders use shaped stones using chisels and
hammers.

• Use of mortar should be avoided, instead cement-sand mortor 1:6 and

lime-sand mortar 1:3 should be used.
2) Ensure proper wall construction:--
• Masonry walls should be built in construction lifts not exceeding 600mm.

•Through-stones (extending over full thickness of wall) or a pair of

overlapping bond-stones (each exceeding over at least 3/4th thickness of
wall) must be used at over 600mm along the high and at a minimum
spacing of 1.2m along the length.

3) Provide horizontal; reinforcing elements:--

•The stone masonry houses must have horizontal bands.(plinth, lintel, roof
and gable bands) These bands can be constructed out of wood or
reinforced concrete and chosen based on economy.

•It is important to provide atleast one band (either lintel or roof band).
4) Control on overall dimensions and heights:--
•The unsupported length of walls between cross-walls should be limited to 5m.

•For longer walls, cross supports raised from the ground level called buttresses
should be provide at spacing not more than 4m.

•Height of each stone should not be greater then 3m.

•In general, stone masonry buildings should not be greater then 2 storey's
when built in cement mortar and should not be greater then 1 storey when
built in lime and mud should not be greater then 1 storey.

•Walls should have a thickness of atleast 1/6(height).

•Although this type 0f masonry construction practice is deficient with regards

to EQ resistance its use is likely to continue due to tradition and low cost. But
to protect human lives and property it is necessary to fallow EQRF.
Low strength masonry:-- Fired brick wall laid in clay mud mortar and
random rubble; uncoursed, undressed or semi-dressed stone masonry in weak
mortar; such as cement-sand, lime-sand and clay mud.

Band:-- A reinforced concrete, reinforced brick or wooden rummer provided

horizontally in the walls to tie them together and to impart horizontal bending
strength in them.

Improving housing designs:--

•If we have a poor configuration to start with, all the engineer can do is to
provide a band-aid improve a basically poor solution as best as he can.
Conversely, if we start-off with a good configuration and reasonable framing
system, even a poor engineer cannot harm its ultimate performance too
much.

•Behavior of a building during EQ depends critically on its overall shape, size

and geometry in addition to how the EQ forces are carried to the ground.
Size of building:--
i. In tall buildings with large height to base size ratio, the horizontal
moment of the floors during ground shaking is large.

ii. In short but very long buildings the damaging effects are many.

iii. In buildings with large plan area, the horizontal seismic forces can be
excessive to be carried by columns and walls.

Horizontal layout of building:--

 Buildings with re-entrant corners like U,V,H and + shaped plan have
sustained significant damage.

 Use separation joints to make complex plans into simple plans.

Vertical layout of building:--
oThe EQ forces developed at different floor levels in a building need to be
brought along the height to the ground by the shortest path, any deviation or
discontinuity in this results in poor performance of the building.

oSet bees cause sudden jump in EQ forces at the level of discontinuity.

oBuildings that have fewer columns or walls in a particular storey or with

unusually tall storey tend to damage or collapse which is initiated in that
storey.

oMany buildings with an open ground storey intended for parking collapsed
during 2001 Bhuj EQ.

Adjacency of buildings:--
•When two buildings are too close to each other they may pound on each
other during EQ.

•With increase in height this collision can be a great prob.

•When heights do not match, roof of shorter building may pound at mid height of
column taller building this can be very dangerous.

Brick masonry houses:--

Components:-- 1)Roof 2)Walls 3)Foundation.

Masonry structures are brittle.

Ground vibrations during EQ’s cause inertia forces at locations of mass in the
building.

These forces travel through the roof and walls to the foundation.

Of the three components of a masonry building walls are most vulnerable to
damage caused by horizontal forces due to EQ.

A wall topples down easily if pushed horizontally at the top in a direction

perpendicular to its plane (weak direction).

But offers much greater resistance if pushed along its length (storey
direction).
Ground shakes simultaneously in the vertical and two horizontal directions
during EQ. However the horizontal vibrations are the most damaging to the
most damaging to normal masonry buildings.

If the walls are not tied together live a box the loads in their weak direction
tend to topple.

To ensure good seismic performance, all the walls must be joined properly
to the adjacent walls. In this way, walls load in their weak direction can take
the advantage of the good lateral resistance offered by walls loaded in their
strong direction.

Walls also need to be tied to the roof and foundation to preserve their
overall intensity.
To improve EQR of brick masonry:--
Box action is required. This can be done by:
1. Good interlocking of masonry courses at the junctions.

2. Employ horizontal bands at different levels particularly at lintel level.

3. Size of doors and windows need to be kept small.

4. Limit length-to-thickness ratio and height-to-thickness ratio.

5. Clay bricks:-- 1)Burnt 2)Un burnt.

Concrete blocks:-- 1)Solid 2)Hallow
Stone blocks.

• Burnt bricks are more commonly used, bricks with low porosity must be
used, they are to be soaked in water before use to minimize the
absorption of water from mortar.
•Cement sand mortar with lime is most suitable which provides excellent
workability, stretches without crumbling as low EQ bonds well with the bricks.

•Bricks must be stronger than mortar excessive thickness of mortar is not

desirable 10mm is satisfactory.

•Masonry building should have simple structure configuration.

I. Over all shape and size of the building.

II. Distribution of mass and horizontal (lateral) load resisting elements.

• Large, tall, long and unsymmetric buildings perform poorly during EQ.

• By developing good box action, we can make them EQ resistant.

• Walls transfer loads to each other at their junction(through lintel bands and roof).

• Hence the masonry courses from the walls meeting at corners must have good
interlocking.

• So openings near the wall corners are to be avoided.

• Hence it is best to keep all openings as small as possible and as far away from
corners as possible.

•Lintel band is the most important of all.

•In buildings with flat RC or reinforcement brick roofs, roof bond is not required.

•In buildings with flat timber or CGI sheet roof (corrugated galvanized iron) roof
bands need to be provided.

•Plinth band are used when there is corner about uneven settlement of
foundation soil.

Lintel band:-- During EQ lintel bands are subjected to bending and pulling
actions.

•Bands can be made of wood or RC for woods cross-section of runner at least

75mm X 38mm spacers at least 50mm X 30mm for RC bars minimum 75mm thick
at least 2 bars of 8mm dia. Rods, tied with steel limits of 6mm dia. @ 150 c/c
Vertical reinforcement:--
Even if horizontal bands are provided, masonry buildings are weakened by the
openings their walls.

During the EQ shaking, the masonry walls get grouped into three sub units:
i. Spandrel masonry.
ii. Well pier masonry.
iii. Sill masonry.

Consider a hipped roof building with two window openings and one door
opening in a wall.

It has plinth and lintel bands. Since it is a hipped roof a roof band is also
provided.

When the ground shakes inertia forces cause the wall piers to disconnect
from the masonry above and below.

These masonry sub-units moves back and front.

 This can cause crushing of masonry at corners.

Movement is possible when piers are slender and weight of structure above is
small.

Otherwise, the piers are likely to develop diagonal(X-type) shear cracking

which is most common failure in masonry buildings.

In unreinforced masonry buildings cross-section area of wall reduces at the

openings.

During shaking buildings may slide just under the roof below the lintel band or
at sill level. Some times at plinth level depending on weight of building, lateral
EQ force, area of opening, types of door frames.

Embedding vertical reinforcement bars in the edges of the slender wall piers
and anchoring them in the roof band at the top forces the masonry piers to
under go bending instead of rocking.

In wider wall piers vertical bars enhance their capacity to resist horizontal EQ
loads and delay the X-cracking.
 It will help to protect wall from sliding as well as from collapsing in the weak direction.

Sliding is rare, most common damage is diagonal cracking of wall piers and also inlined
cracked at the corners of doors and windows.

The shape of openings distort and it becomes like a rhombus the corners that come
closer develop cracks.

Cracks are wider for wider openings, steel bars provided in the wall all round the
opening restricts these cracks at the corners.

Retrofitting of masonry buildings:--

Failure modes of masonry buildings:--
I. Out- of + plane failure (wall perpendicular to seismic motion).
II. In – plane failure (wall parallel to seismic motion).
III. Diaphram failure.
IV. Failure of connection.
V. Non-structural components failure.
VI. Pounding.
Box system:-- A load bearing wall structure without a space frame the
horizontal forces being resisted by the walls acting as shear walls.

Band:-- A RCC, reinforced brick or wooden eunner provided horizontally in

the walls to tie them together and to impart horizontal bending strength in
them.

Separation section:-- A gap provided between adjacent buildings or parts

of the same building to avoid pounding due to EQ.

Crumble section:-- A separation section filled with appropriate material

which can crumble or fracture in an EQ.
1) Repair.
2) Strengthening (or) retrofitting.
3) Re construction.
Seismic retrofitting (or) strengthening:-- If the existing building do
not meet the seismic strength requirements of present EQ codes due to
original structural inadequacies and material degradation due to times or
alterations carried out during use over the years, the process of upgrading
their EQ resistance to the level of present day codes is called seismic
retrofitting.
1) Increasing lateral strength in one 0r both directions by increasing
column and wall area or the number of walls and columns.

2) Giving unity to the structure, provide proper connection between

elements of ability.

3) Eliminating features like asymmetrical plan, sudden change of stiffness,

concentration of ,large openings in walls.

4) Avoiding the possibility of brittle modes of failure by reinforcement and

connections.
Materials:-- Cement, steel, wood and bamboo.

Shotcrete:-- It is a cement mortar (or) cement concrete (CA not > 10mm)
conveyed through a hose and penumatically placed under high velocity on to a
prepared concrete or masonry surface.

Epoxy resins:-- These are excellent binding agents with high tensile strength.
They will be injected in to cracks.

Epoxy mortar:-- For larger void spaces, it is possible to combine epoxy resins
with sand to form epoxy mortar, it will have higher compressive strength, lower
tensile strength and lower young's modulus.

Quick setting mortar cement mortar:-- It is a non-hydrous magnesium

phosphate cement.

Mechanical anchors:-- Anchorage is provided by welding action.

 Minor and medium cracks ---- 0.5mm to 5mm injection of epoxy.

Major cracks (>5mm) 1)Expensive CM pick setting cement.

2)Wire mesh

Roofs and floors:--

Replace roof tiles by CGI, AS.

False seiling ----- non brittle like hessian cloth, bamboo matting, foam
substances.

Walls:--
1) By grouting
2) Vertical reinforcement concrete lowering on the two sides.
3) By prestressing.
Grouting:--
2 to 4 number of wholes in a square meter.

First inject water to wash.

Cement – water 1:1 is injected or low proportion 0.1 to 0. start from

lower holes.