Use of Non-Structural Masonry Walls as Robustness Reserve

This paper describes a research study conducted to analyze the proposal of considering non- structural clay masonry walls as a reserve of robustness for structures subjected to unforeseen extreme events. A residential building partially damaged as a consequence of a landslide is herein considered as case-study. In this case, disproportionate collapse was prevented due to the contribution of the outer masonry clay walls. A parametric study is also presented, considering different damage scenarios, namely the collapse of up to three outer columns, and different geometries, varying the span length and the number of floors. The increase in robustness provided by non-structural masonry walls was computed for all considered situations. Results are discussed and conclusions are drawn.