Background of simple design rules for masonry buildings under seismic loads.

The development of the National Annex for DIN EN 1998-1 requires the check and revision of simple design rules based on the ENV-version taken novel research results into account. The same task was needed for the preparation of the revised version of DIN 4149. Both codes offer simple structural design rules for type and arrangement of horizontal load bearing walls in combination with tables of necessary shear wall areas, which can be used to avoid a structural analysis. The application of simple rules for buildings in low to moderate seismic areas, like Germany and other countries in Central Europe, is a reasonable possibility for the engineer to compass unnecessary computing time and well known safety verification problems of masonry shear walls. The present article introduces the background of simple design rules for masonry buildings and evaluates their application results in comparison to alternative calculation procedures.