Shaking table testing of an existing masonry building : assessment and improvement of the seismic performance

摘要

This paper aims to assess and improve the seismic performance of an existing masonry building with flexiblefloors, representative of a Portuguese building typology—‘gaioleiro’ buildings. The study involved seismictests and dynamic identification tests of two models (nonstrengthened and strengthened) in the shaking table.Each model was subjected to several seismic tests with increasing amplitude. . Before the first test and aftereach seismic test, the dynamic identification of the model was carried out, aiming at obtaining their seismicvulnerability curves based on a damage indicator obtained from the decrease of the frequencies of themodes. In the strengthened model, steel elements were used to improve the connection between walls andfloors, together with ties in the upper stories. The results show that adopted strengthening technique is effective for reducing the seismic vulnerability of ‘gaioleiro’ buildings, namely for improving the out-of-plane behavior of the facades.