Seismic Performance of Nonstructural Brick Walls Used in Indonesian R/C Buildings

This paper describes the effects of nonstructural brick walls on the seismic performance of reinforced concrete (R/C) buildings. Experimental and analytical studies were conducted on two buildings: one of which collapsed and the other suffered moderate damage due to the 2007 Sumatra, Indonesia earthquakes. A brick wall was extracted from the moderately damaged building and transported to Japan from Indonesia to experimentally evaluate its seismic performance. Two R/C one-bay frame specimens were constructed, and the imported wall was installed in one of the specimens. Comparing the seismic performance of specimens with and without the brick wall through quasi-static cyclic loading tests, wall contributions were quantitatively evaluated. Moreover, the seismic performance of the earthquake-damaged Indonesian buildings was evaluated numerically considering the findings of the tests. The analyses revealed a possible reason for the collapse of one of the buildings due to the earthquakes.