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Review of design standards for confined masonry in Latin America: proposals for the Ecuadorian Construction Standard

Abstract:

Confined masonry (CM) construction is a structural typology widely used in Latin America for low to medium-rise buildings, since with an adequate design and execution on site, it has shown a good seismic performance. It it is important to draw lessons from the behavior of this typology in recent earthquakes and update the design standards according to the state of knowledge. Precisely, the Ecuadorian Construction Standard (NEC) is in a process of updating. With such a motivation, the present work was conceived as a comparative review between the chapters of the NEC of CM design and several Latin American standards. The most important provisions of three specific sections were contrasted: 1) materials, 2) construction requirements and 3) lateral load strength of walls. Considering the technological reality and the constructive practice of the country, deficiencies and limitations in the NEC were identified. In addition, based on experimental results, the greater reliability of the formula with a Coulomb approach to estimate the lateral load strength of CM walls was corroborated. Finally, conclusions and recommendations were made for updating the national standard regarding CM.