Collapse simulation of half-scaled unreinforced masonry building and validation of shaking table tests

It is often stated that earthquakes do not kill people; rather the collapsed structures do. Masonry structures, the oldest known structure dating back to the birth of the first civilizations, still constitute an important part of the existing building stock of the world. Masonry structures, which are reliable under vertical loads, may be vulnerable to dynamic effects such as earthquakes. For this reason, it is important to examine the dynamic behaviour of masonry structures under dynamic effects such as earthquakes and to examine possible damage and/or collapse mechanisms. This study aimed to numerically simulate the damage and/or collapse conditions of an unreinforced masonry building constructed in a laboratory environment under different dynamic effects. The masonry building was tested on shaking tables under seven different dynamic effects. As a result of shaking table experiments, accelerations and displacements on the model were measured. In addition, the damage cases for each case were determined and compared, and the damage indices related to these damage cases were determined. In the last dynamic effect applied on the shaking table, the building collapsed. Bullet Constraints Builder and Blender software were used for numerical simulations of the damage conditions obtained from the wrap table experiments. With the numerical simulations carried out, it was seen that the damage and/or collapse conditions obtained from the shaking table tests of the masonry building were obtained with high similarity, and the crack formation and propagation could also be obtained. As a result, it has been concluded that numerical simulations can be used to evaluate the structural behaviour of masonry buildings and/or to take a possible reinforcement decision and/or to determine the effectiveness of the reinforcement, and in case of a possible collapse, the formation of the debris insulation can be determined separately.