Performance of masonry buildings and churches in the 22 february 2011 christchurch earthquake

Abstract

As part of the „Project Masonry‟ Recovery Project funded by the New Zealand Natural Hazards Research Platform, commencing in March 2011, an international team of researchers was deployed to document and interpret the observed earthquake damage to masonry buildings and to churches as a result of the 22nd February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. The study focused on investigating commonly encountered failure patterns and collapse mechanisms. A brief summary of activities undertaken is presented, detailing the observations that were made on the performance of and the deficiencies that contributed to the damage to approximately 650 inspected unreinforced clay brick masonry (URM) buildings, to 90 unreinforced stone masonry buildings, to 342 reinforced concrete masonry (RCM) buildings, to 112 churches in the Canterbury region, and to just under 1100 residential dwellings having external masonry veneer cladding. In addition, details are provided of retrofit techniques that were implemented within relevant Christchurch URM buildings prior to the 22nd February earthquake and brief suggestions are provided regarding appropriate seismic retrofit and remediation techniques for stone masonry buildings.The authors acknowledge the financial support for Project Masonry from the New Zealand Natural Hazards Research Platform. The testing of adhesive anchors was undertaken in conjunction with the RAPID grant CMMI-1138614 from the US National Science Foundation. The investigation of the performance of residential brick veneers was financially supported by Brickworks Building Products Australia