Damage states for reinforced CMU masonry shear walls

Abstract

In order to assess the damage loss of reinforced masonry walls under earthquake loading, it is helpful to have a set of commonly accepted damage states. HAZUS gives detailed description for the qualitative damage states and assigns threshold drift ratios for achievement of each damage state. The HAZUS damage states are assigned based on expert opinion and judgment, and performance and experience data. Unfortunately, application of the HAZUS damage states is limited by the fact that they do not differentiate failure mode: flexure, shear and possible mixed flexure/shear. Furthermore, drift ratios defined in HAZUS have not been fully verified by experiment or experience. As a step toward addressing these deficiencies, this paper examines experimental results from three experimental programs and assesses the accuracy of the HAZUS methodology. Drift ratios at achievement of defined damage states are compared with HAZUS definitions. Results show that the HAZUS methodology tends to overestimate the drift ratio achieved by a wall at a given level of damage. In this paper, only experimental results for concrete masonry unit (CMU) walls are considered. © 2006 Springer.