Seismic vulnerability of the Himalayan half-dressed rubble stone masonry structures, experimental and analytical studies

Abstract. Half-Dressed rubble stone (DS) masonry structures as found in the Himalayan region are investigated using experimental and analytical studies. The experimental study included a shake table test on a one-third scaled structural model, a representative of DS masonry structure employed for public critical facilities, e.g. school buildings, offices, health care units, etc. The aim of the experimental study was to understand the damage mechanism of the model, develop damage scale towards deformation-based assessment and retrieve the lateral force-deformation response of the model besides its elastic dynamic properties, i.e. fundamental vibration period and elastic damping. The analytical study included fragility analysis of building prototypes using a fully probabilistic nonlinear dynamic method. The prototypes are designed as SDOF systems assigned with lateral, force-deformation constitutive law (obtained experimentally). Uncertainties in the constitutive law, i.e. lateral stiffness, strength and deformation limits, are considered through random Monte Carlo simulation. Fifty prototype buildings are analyzed using a suite of ten natural accelerograms and an incremental dynamic analysis technique. Fragility and vulnerability functions are derived for the damageability assessment of structures, economic loss and casualty estimation during an earthquake given the ground shaking intensity, essential within the context of risk assessment of existing stock aiming towards risk mitigation and disaster risk reduction.