Politics of Reproductive Justice: Planned Parenthood Activism in Shades of Blue, Red, and Pink

In this paper I examine Planned Parenthood’s activism in two politically different states. Drawing on political opportunity theory and intersectional feminist theory, I question if and how Planned Parenthood is engaging with issues of intersectionality in these two states. In addition, I question if they are focusing on issues of reproductive justice, not only reproductive rights. After conducting semi-structured interviews (N=6), I show that Planned Parenthood has an increasingly intersectional focus, especially in their coalition work, and that they are engaging with reproductive justice issues by centering their patients and considering the multiple barriers that different communities face in accessing reproductive health care

Force-displacement response of unreinforced masonry walls for seismic design

In regions with low to moderate seismicity, unreinforced masonry (URM) is commonly used for the construction of low to mid-rise buildings. When these structures are subjected to seismic loading, the stiff URM walls attract considerable part of the lateral forces and need therefore to be considered in seismic design and assessment. Nevertheless, the response of URM walls subjected to lateral in-plane loading is not yet fully understood and given estimates for some of the crucial design parameters are unsatisfactory (the displacement capacity and the effective stiffness). Two series of URM walls tested under lateral in-plane loading are presented. First series was built at full-scale using a typical Swiss hollow clay brick and a commercially available standard cement-based mortar. Second series represented the same walls at half-scale. During all tests, the walls were subjected to quasi-static cycles of increasing drift demands, while controlling the boundary conditions (axial load and moment restraint at the top of the walls) such to simulate the typical loading of a ground floor wall in an URM building. From the experiments several new insights on the kinematics of URM walls are drawn. For instance, it is identified that once several diagonal cracks develop in the walls, the deformation capacity of the walls is governed by the separation of the rectangular wall into two triangles. From comparison between both test series at different scales, new recommendations for the correct scaling of hollow core masonry are derived and proposed. In order to compare our own results to other existing wall tests, an existing dataset of URM walls is extended and reanalyzed. Finally, a dataset of 64 quasi-static tests on modern URM walls of different heights and masonry types is presented. The evaluation of the dataset confirms the influence of the boundary conditions on the drift capacity. Moreover, it reveals the presence of a strong size effect and an empirical equation is proposed to estimate the ultimate drift capacity while accounting for these factors. Throughout the wall tests, an optical measurement system is used to track the displacement field of the walls. This measurement was synchronized with the force measurement such that global and local engineering demand parameters of the walls could be linked. This point was crucial for the following contributions of this thesis: (i) proposition of two sets of limit states (LSs) that link local damage states to characteristic points of the global force-displacement curve of URM walls; (ii) the study of different deformation parameters for the validation of mechanical and numerical models at local level. A new mechanical model is proposed which describes the nonlinear force-displacement response of flexural dominated URM walls. For this, first, an analytical part is derived based on the plane section hypothesis and a non-tension material with a linear-elastic constitutive material law in compression. It assumes that only the compressed part of the wall contributes to the wall resistance and accounts for a softening due to the reduction of the effective area. In a second step, new criteria are developed which predict the occurrence of the previous proposed local LSs, which are then incorporated in the analytical model. The new complete mechanical model is validated through the comparison with experimental evidence yielding to good estimates for the effective stiffness and the displacement capacity

Scaling unreinforced masonry structures with hollow-core clay bricks for laboratory testing

For a shake table test on a four-storey structure with both unreinforced hollow-core brick masonry (URM) walls and reinforced concrete (RC) walls, the test unit had to be constructed at half-scale. While past experience showed that testing RC structural elements at reduced scale leads to similar results as full-scale tests, a literature review on tests of scaled masonry revealed that scaling of masonry was more challenging. For instance, several researchers reported that the scaled masonry was stronger but less stiff than the full-scale masonry. However, previous work concentrated on the scaling of solid clay material and not all conclusions can be translated directly to masonry with modern hollow-core clay bricks. As a preparation to the shake table test, an extensive test program on full- and half-scale hollow-core brick masonry was conducted. This paper presents results of material tests that were conducted to develop a half-scale masonry that matched the full-scale masonry best. Our results are compared to previous investigations and the differences between scaling of masonry with solid and hollow-core bricks are discussed

Influence of boundary conditions and size effect on the drift capacity of URM walls

In codes the drift capacity of unreinforced masonry (URM) walls is often estimated as a function of the failure mode and the aspect ratio. The empirical relationships are based on results from quasi-static cyclic tests on single URM walls, which were tested simulating either fixed-fixed or cantilever boundary conditions. In real structures, the stiffness and strength of slabs and spandrels define the boundary conditions of the walls and therefore the moment, shear force and axial force imposed on a pier during an earthquake. Depending on the exact configuration of pier, slab and spandrel, the boundary conditions can vary significantly. In order to investigate the influence of these boundary conditions on the force-deformation behaviour of URM walls, six quasi-static cyclic tests were performed. Different boundary conditions were simulated by varying the axial load ratio and the ratio of top and bottom moment applied to the pier. This article presents the test results and discusses the influence of the boundary conditions on the failure mechanism and the drift capacity of the walls. In addition, the results from 64 quasi-static tests on URM walls of different heights and masonry types are evaluated. These tests confirm the influence of the boundary conditions on the drift capacity. Moreover, they show that a strong size effect is present which leads to smaller drift capacities with increasing pier height. For this reason, an empirical drift capacity equation is proposed which accounts for the moment profile, the axial load ratio and the size effect

Flexural deformations of URM piers: Comparison of analytical models with experiments

Despite the fact that displacement-based methods are now frequently applied when assessing the seismic performance of unreinforced masonry (URM) structures, the displacement capacity of in-plane loaded URM piers is still estimated from empirical rather than mechanical relationships. One idea for estimating a pier’s force-displacement curve including its displacement capacity that has been put forward in the past is based on the double integration of the curvature profile. The curvature is derived assuming a bilinear stress-strain relationship in the compression domain and neglecting the tensile strength of the masonry. We tested several identical URM piers under different constant axial load and shear span ratios while applying quasi-static horizontal cyclic in-plane loading. During testing, we tracked with a set of cameras the displacement of four LEDs on each full brick of the masonry piers. Therefore, we were able to determine the local deformations, e.g. average strains in the bricks and deformations of the joints. In this paper we will present experimentally determined local and global deformation quantities of one pier dominated by flexural deformations and compare these to the estimates from the analytical model. Differences between model and experiment will be discussed and first estimates of performance limits describing local deformations will be proposed

Size effects in drift capacities of URM walls

Examining the results of a large set of quasi-static cyclic tests on unreinforced masonry (URM) walls showed that the drift capacity of URM walls reduces with increasing wall size. Such a size effect is of concern since most wall tests were carried out on test specimens with heights much smaller than actual story heights. In modern URM buildings the wall height is, however, often equal to the story height. Current drift capacity models implemented in structural design codes do not account for this size effect, thereby they tend to overestimate the drift capacity of URM walls with heights equal to the story height. The objective of this paper is to review existing evidence for size effects on the drift capacity of URM walls and discuss possible reasons for this effect. The paper starts with a general review of size effects in quasi-brittle structures and a review on existing numerical and experimental evidence for size effects in the seismic response of URM walls. It puts forward the notion that for walls failing in flexure the size effect is largely caused by the confining effect of the foundation, which diminishes with increasing height, while for walls failing in shear the size effect stems mainly from the post-peak response and the formation of a crushing band of the height of a brick. It concludes with an outlook on future research needs for quantifying the size effect on the drift capacity of URM walls in flexure and shear

Influence of coupling on the displacement capacities of URM piers – comparison of experimental results with existing recommendations

In existing European recommendations the drift capacity of unreinforced masonry (URM) piers is estimated as a function of the failure mode, aspect ratio and/or axial load ratio. The empirical relationships are based on a set of results from quasi-static cyclic tests on single URM piers, which were tested simulating either double-fixed or cantilever boundary conditions. In modern URM structures, the URM piers are often connected by reinforced concrete (RC) slabs which provide enough stiffness and strength to impose a certain rotational restraint to the piers. In this paper we determine typical boundary conditions and apply them within a series of quasi-static cyclic tests of URM piers. Some preliminary results are presented and compared to existing recommendations for modern European masonry. Differences between the experimental results and the recommendations are reported and tendencies discussed