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TITLE OF PROPOSAL: Seismic behaviour of L- and T-shaped unreinforced masonry shear walls including acoustic insulation devices

HOST TA FACILITY: EQUALS, Bristol, UK

TA AGREEMENT BETWEEN USERS AND FACILITY: October 2011

STARTING DATE: December 2010

END DATE: June 2012

NO. OF USERS (researchers): 4

LEAD USER:
Hervé Degee - University of Liège (Belgium)

ADDITIONAL USERS:
Christoph Butenweg - Lehrstuhl für Baustatik und Baudynamik (Germany)
Bram Veelhaver - CDM Lab (Belgium)
Rob Vanderpluijm - Wienerberger B.V (Netherlands) 

SUMMARY OF PROPOSED RESEARCH:

The proposed research aims at improving the knowledge about the seismic behaviour of specific structural elements of unreinforced/unconfined masonry structures. Such a type of structures is very common in countries of North-Western Europe (Belgium, Netherlands, Germany) that must be considered as presenting a low-to-moderate seismic activity. According to EC8/EC6 procedure, it can be rather difficult to justify the seismic stability of these structures only by considering shear walls in the earthquake direction. It is often necessary to account also for transverse walls acting as flanges. However very few experimental tests are available to support design formulas based on this principle. On the other hand, very strong acoustical requirements are also mandatory in these countries for flats. Insulation techniques have been developed, but their consequences on the building stability under horizontal actions (like for example earthquake) is up to now completely unknown.
The objectives of the proposed research are thus:
1. To investigate the seismic dynamic behaviour or T and L masonry walls (i.e. shear walls + one flange) with the aim of improving knowledge on such elements.
2. To investigate the seismic consequences of the devices used to improve the acoustic performance of buildings.