Seismic vulnerability studies, renovation and reinforcement of houses built with adobe brick and rammed earth

Abstract

Approximately one fifth of the world’s population and some 35million people in South America inhabit adobe and rammed earthconstructions. These buildings have demonstrated poor seismicbehavior in earthquakes occurred over the last 50 years all aroundthe world generating thousands of casualties. In addition, in Colombiaa large number of historic and cultural earth built constructionsare located on high seismicity zones. With these precedents, aninvestigation orientated to establish the seismic behavior of theseconstructive types, and propose seismic rehabilitation alternatives,viable from the technical point of view. The two proposed alternatives,the one with wire mesh and mortar and the other with woodconfining elements, prove their feasibility, showing the second one,better relative seismic behavior.