QUIUN, DANIEL1; VILLA GARCÃA, GLADYS2; BLONDET, MARCIAL3
1) Professor, Catholic University of Peru, Department of Civil Engineering, dquiun@pucp.edu.pe
2) Associate Professor, Catholic University of Peru, Department of Civil Engineering, gvillag@pucp.edu.pe
3) Professor, Catholic University of Peru, Department of Civil Engineering, mblondet@pucp.pe
The 2010 Haiti earthquake (Mw 7.0) caused more than 220000 deaths and more than 100000 houses were destroyed. Non engineering constructions made of unreinforced masonry and reinforced concrete frames with masonry block infill are the common popular housing buildings in Haiti that failed badly.
To understand and to improve Haitian masonry, an experimental research was carried out at the Structures Laboratory of the Catholic University of Peru. The improvements were the use of confined masonry, ideal for low rise buildings in seismic areas. Concrete masonry units were fabricated reproducing Haitian blocks. Full masonry walls were constructed and tested under cyclic lateral load. These walls were all different, but had the same lateral load pattern. This paper reports the promising results obtained, which show that confined masonry using Haitian blocks with 66% of the voids filled, improves the seismic resistance and the overall integrity of the masonry.
Keywords: Haiti earthquake, confined masonry, concrete blocks, cyclic load, infill panel