Seismic Performance of a 1:4 Scale Two-Story Rammed Earth Model Reinforced with Steel Plates Tested on a Bi-Axial Shaking Table

• Published in: Buildings (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 12; p. 2950
• Main Authors: Barrera, Natalia, Ruiz, Daniel M., Reyes, Juan C., Alvarado, Yezid A., Carrasco-Beltrán, Daniela
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.12.2023
• Subjects: Architecture; Buildings; Colombia; Confining; Cultural heritage; Cultural resources; Ductility; Ductility tests; Earth models; earthen historic buildings; Earthquake damage; Earthquakes; Historic preservation; Mechanical properties; Modules; Performance evaluation; Physical properties; Rammed earth; Rehabilitation; Retrofitting; Seismic activity; Seismic engineering; Seismic response; seismic retrofit; Seismology; Shake table tests; shaking table tests; South America; Steel; Steel plates; Steel products; South America; Colombia; Peru
• DOI: 10.3390/buildings13122950
• ISSN: 2075-5309

During the 16th and 17th centuries, Latin American cities adopted earthen construction techniques from European colonizers. As a result, rammed earth (RE) buildings now occupy an important place in Latin America’s cultural heritage. However, earthquakes around the world have shown that unreinforced earthen constructions are highly vulnerable. For several years, researchers in northern South America have been proposing a technique that consists of installing confining steel plates (or wooden elements) on both sides of the RE walls to form a grid. This system has shown excellent performance in controlling seismic damage and increasing strength and ductility capacity. Although researchers have tested full-scale one- and two-story earthen walls under pseudo-static loading in the laboratory, and one- and two-story earthen walls at 1:1 and 1:2 scales on uniaxial and biaxial shaking tables, the behavior of a complete reinforced module (one- or two-story) on a shaking table has never been assessed. The present study presents the results of shaking table tests performed on two-story RE modules at 1:4 scale. The experimental data indicate that the retrofit system with confining steel plates was effective in reducing the seismic damage of earthen constructions. In addition, the comparison of the results of the 1:4 scale tests with the 1:2 and 1:1 scale tests previously conducted by the researchers shows that the acceleration levels of the equivalent prototypes are in the same order of magnitude for the three scales.