BEHAVIOR OF ANCIENT ADOBE MASONRY WALLETS UNDER CYCLIC AND CONSTANT PRE-COMPRESSION LOADS

This paper deals with an experimental study of adobe masonry wallets under cyclic loads. The focus is to study the response of the adobe masonry wallets in terms of resistance, deformability, and energy dissipation as well. The specimens used for the experimental tests were obtained from an ancient adobe building named Huaca de la Luna in northern Perú. Three specimens of 880x850x180 mm³ were tested under cyclic loads with a pre compression force of 53% of the uniaxial compression resistance capacity. Flexural and shear failure patterns were observed during the tests. Bilinear curves were obtained from the hysteresis envelopes for studying the seismic performance of the tested wallets. A mean value of 9.05kN/mm and 9.68kN were found for the secant rigidity and ultimate lateral load respectively. This study contributes to understand the linear and nonlinear response of adobe masonry and could be useful to calibrate numerical models for future research.