Masonry construction comprises a large portion of building construction in the U.S. and the world. Reinforced masonry construction use is increasing in moderate to higher seismic zones because of its apparent features of economy, fire safety, architectural flexibility, and ease of construction. The present state of masonry structural analysis and design and materials and construction technologies does not enable an accurate prediction of building behavior under lateral loads such as seismic loads. This research project will provide the preliminary design of the full-scale masonry research structure for the U.S.-Japan Coordinated Program for Masonry Research. This is necessary to allow integration and coordination of the experimental and the analytical tasks with the design tasks for ultimate use in establishing a rational limit state design methodology for masonry building construction. This research project includes development of the preliminary design for the research buildings, estimation of story shear capacity, estimation of interstory force-displacement characteristics in both the elastic and inelastic range, and integration of these data with the experimental and analytical research projects.
