Research on seismic capacity of rowlock masonry by shaking table test

Rowlock cavity wall is a Chinese traditional masonry wall, which has been extensively used in rural areas of southern China such as Jiangsu, Hunan, Hubei, Zhejiang and Jiangxi Province. After the Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008, peoples began to focus on the seismic capacity of those large amount of rural residential houses built in rowlock cavity wall. To assess the existing houses, it´s necessary to make clear the seismic shear capacity of rowlock cavity wall at first. Based on the report of General Seismic Investigation in Jiangsu Qidong, one 1/2-scale two-story rowlock cavity wall house model was built in Southeast University lab, and tested on the shaking table. The model bricks were split from original Eight-five bricks through electric saw, and each side length of model brick is about 1/2 of the side length of original Eight-five brick. During the shaking table test, three earthquake waves were used, and the maximum peak value of table acceleration was 178gal. The shaking table test results showed that those existing rowlock cavity wall houses in rural areas would collapse at the action of earthquake with maximum peak acceleration 125gal, which is defined as rarely earthquake in the zones belong to fortification intensity 6 in Code for Seismic Design of Buildings (GB50011-2001).