Performance of Unreinforced Hollow-Block Masonry Houses During 23 August 2017 Ranya Earthquake

Abstract

The earthquake in Ranya City took place at local time 16:42 (GMT+3) on August 23rd 2017, with a magnitude of 5.3 Richter scale in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The earthquake with an approximate duration of 5 seconds occurred near Lake Dokan with a depth of 10 km below the surface of the earth. It caused a lot of damages to the structures in the region. The most vulnerable buildings were unreinforced hollow-block masonry houses which are composed of hollow-concrete blocks. This paper discusses the performance of unreinforced masonry houses of Ranya City with illustrative photos taken during on-site investigation for a number of damaged houses subjected to seismic actions. The main structural deficiencies that caused the wall cracks were highlighted, such as; very low tensile and shear resistance of the walls, large openings and their positioning, weak mortar and binding between the masonry units, existing weak joints between the crossing walls.

Keywords

• unreinforced masonry houses
• earthquake damages
• hollow-concrete block
• seismic performance
• ranya earthquake