''Ever increasing population in seismically active urban areas, aging building stock, and expansion of urbanization to previously agricultural lands with soft soil deposits render the protection of human lives against earthquake disasters extremely more difficult by the time. Although much effort is …

Twee sterke aardbevingen troffen de regio Thessalië op 3 maart 2021 (Mw = 6,3) en op 4 maart 2021 (Mw = 6,1). Het epicentrum van de aardbevingen lag respectievelijk ongeveer 23 en 29 km ten NW van Larissa, een van de dichtstbevolkte steden van Griekenland. Daarna volgden verschillende naschokken. Hoewel …

The seismic assessment of unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings with cavity walls is a relevant issue in many countries, such as in Central and Northern Europe, Australia, New Zealand, China and several other countries. A cavity wall consists of two separate parallel masonry walls (called leaves) connected …

This paper presents a proof of concept for monitoring masonry structures using two different types of markers which are not easily noticeable by human eye but exhibit high reflection when subjected to NIR (near-infrared) wavelength of light. The first type is a retroreflective marker covered by a special …

This paper aims to quantify the evolution of damage in masonry walls under induced seismicity. A damage index equation, which is a function of the evolution of shear slippage and opening of the mortar joints, as well as of the drift ratio of masonry walls, was proposed herein. Initially, a dataset of …

As part of the American Society of Civil Engineers E-Newsletter at page 5&6.

Masonry structures represent the highest proportion of building stock worldwide. Currently, the structural condition of such structures is predominantly manually inspected which is a laborious, costly and subjective process. With developments in computer vision, there is an opportunity to use digital …

During the 2015 Gorkha earthquake of 7.8 Mw that hit Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, numerous Nepalese Pagodas suffered extensive damage while others collapsed. Risk reduction strategies implemented in the region focused on disassembling historical structures and rebuilding them with modern material without …

In recent years, the number of human-induced earthquakes in Groningen, a large gas field in the north of the Netherlands, has increased. The majority of the buildings are built by using unreinforced masonry (URM), most of which consists of cavity (i.e. two-leaf) walls, and were not designed to withstand …

The assessment of the out-of-plane response of unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings with cavity walls has been a popular topic in regions such as Central and Northern Europe, Australia, New Zealand, China and several other countries. Cavity walls are particularly vulnerable as the out-of-plane capacity …