Numerical study on partially-reinforced semidressed stone masonry for build-back-better in Nepal.

The 2015 Nepal earthquakes and associated aftershocks damaged or destroyed more than three quarters of a million residential buildings. In addition to these residential buildings, thousands of schools, health facilities, and community buildings were also damaged or destroyed, subsequently requiring fast-tracked reconstruction. To mitigate future earthquake disaster risk, the Government of Nepal has adopted the build-back-better (BBB) approach. The main construction materials that are economically available in abundance in most parts of the earthquake-affected areas are stone and mud. As part of the study reported herein, a number of building typologies that utilise local stone and mud as construction materials combined with limited use of imported materials were developed for BBB in the earthquake-affected areas. The challenge with developing such building typologies is to provide evidence-based designs that illustrate suitability when subjected to earthquake shaking. Stone masonry in mud mortar poses distinct challenges for numerical simulations due to non standardised construction, the irregular nature of masonry units, the cracked state of masonry, and limited linear behaviour. To understand the seismic performance of the selected building typologies, non-linear finite element models for unreinforced and reinforced stone masonry buildings were simulated. These modelling efforts will later be verified using static and shaking table tests. An approach for numerical modelling of the selected building typology is presented.