Published works

It is widely considered that building structural damages during earthquakes can be calibrated against building’s lateral drift. A study of this relationship assists in the development of fragility curves, which can be used as part of large-scale seismic risk evaluation. In the current study, pushover analyses were conducted on four prevalent Australia/New Zealand unreinforced masonry (URM) building typologies to study this relationship. The buildings were modelled as equivalent frames using a commercial software, and the damage progress within the building under increasing lateral drifts were recorded. Limits of displacements corresponding to different damage states were established and compared to the values found in other studies and/or recommended by ASCE guidelines. The earlier studies that were used in the comparison included two NZ-based numerical research that were aimed at reproducing damages that were occurred to 3 buildings during the recent New Zealand (Gisborne 2007 and Christchurch 2011) earthquakes. The comparisons suggest that storey drift limits recommended in ASCE guidelines can be used to conservatively estimate building damage state.