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. In the U.S., masonry buildings are designed and built with methods, codes and standards that rely upon a mixture of working stress methods, empirical rules, and questionable methods for determining allowable stress values. Masonry is also a complex building material because of the large number of design and construction variables which influence the final product configuration and its response under seismic loads. In order to describe the seismic response of masonry buildings it is necessary to develop the fundamental knowledge base to determine basic design methodologies consistent with safety and economic requirements. This research project will construct an advanced analytical model for reinforced masonry and associated numerical algorithms to simulate the monotonic and hysteretic planar response of 1-, 2-, and 3-story shear walls. The model is nonphenomenological in the sense that the global response can be synthesized from the constitutive relations of the masonry, steel and steel-concrete interfaces together with the steel geometry. The research provides direct support to other masonry researchers where the results will be used to plan experiments, interpret experimental data, and extend the experimental data base. This project is part of the U.S.-Japan Coordinated Program for Masonry Building Research and the Technical Coordinating Committee for Masonry Research (TCCMAR) Program.
