MODELLING THE SEISMIC RESPONSE OF A CONFINED MASONRY BUILDING USING EQUIVALENT STRUT MODELS

Confined masonry (CM) technology is extensively employed in many parts of the world for the construction of residential buildings due to its improved seismic performance compared to the vulnerable unreinforced masonry (URM). This study focuses on the numerical simulation of seismic response of CM walls and a three-storey model of a CM building using Equivalent Strut Models (ESM) in OpenSees framework. Different strut and constitutive models available in the literature were used, i.e. four single-strut models and one multi-strut model. The primary objective is to identify the most suitable model for accurately simulating the global response of CM walls and structures. Firstly, different numerical models of the CM wall were compared against two full-scale shear compression tests, which enabled us to identify the most suitable and accurate model. The most suitable model was then used to develop a numerical model of the three-storey CM building, and the results of the simulations were compared with the experiment. Overall, the findings indicate that while some of the utilized single-strut models effectively capture global seismic response, the multi-strut model provides better insight into local effects and higher accuracy of the estimation of strength, stiffness, and post-peak response. Further validation with additional improvements of the best-fit ESM model is recommended to ensure its practical applicability.