The recent
revision of the Bangladesh national building code (BNBC) necessitates the
buildings designed in the old code be assessed for their adequacy to satisfy
seismic provisions of the revised BNBC. The existing evaluation manual in
Bangladesh is based on the Japanese second-level evaluation method that
considers the strong-beam weak-column failure. However, the buildings designed
according to the previous code consider the strong-column weak-beam failure.
Therefore, the proposed detailed seismic evaluation (DSE) method capable of
capturing this effect and providing a simple index resembling the existing
manual was tested in a low-rise building. Moreover, in design, ignoring the
brick infill can alter the strength and deformation behavior of the columns and
the story's capacities accordingly. This research aims to assess the variation
of story-wise performance considering the infill wall for a low-rise building
designed according to the previous code. Additionally, the low-cost
strength-based ferrocement (FC) retrofit was tested as a performance
improvement technique. The draft copy of the SATREPS manual was used as a basis
for calculating wall capacity for both untreated and FC treated. This research
found that the DSE method provides more realistic seismic performance capturing
reasonable failure mechanisms initiated by plastic hinges in beams than the
JBDPA second level evaluation. Moreover, the contribution of suitably
configured solid masonry walls can improve both strength and deformation
behavior and thus increase safety, leading to more economic evaluation.
Additionally, the Out-of-plane capacity for walls was found to be larger than
the in-plane capacity. FC retrofit method proved to be a convenient way to
improve performance without intervening in the columns or RC walls. Therefore,
it is expected to conduct further analysis under other considerations not
estimated in the present research in the future.
Keywords: Detail seismic evaluation method, infill wall effect, ferrocement retrofit