Infilled reinforced concrete (IRC) frames are a very common construction typology, not only in developing countries such as Pakistan but also in southern Europe and Western countries, due to their ease of construction and less technical skills required for the construction. Their performance during past earthquakes has been in some cases satisfactory and in other cases inadequate. Significant effort has been made among researchers to improve such performance, but few have highlighted the influence of construction materials used in the infill walls. In some building codes, infills are still considered as non-structural elements, both in the design of new buildings and, sometimes, in the assessment of existing buildings. This is mainly due to some difficulties in modeling their mechanical behavior and also the large variety of typologies, which are difficult to categorize. Some building codes, for example, Eurocode, already address the influence of infill walls in design, but there is still a lack of homogeneity among different codes. For example, the Pakistan building code (PBC) does not address infills, despite being a common construction technique in the country. Past earthquake survey records show that construction materials and infill types significantly affect the seismic response of buildings, thus highlighting the importance of investigating such parameters. This is the object of this work, where a numerical model for infill walls is introduced, which aims at predicting their failure mode, as a function of some essential parameters, such as the friction coefficient between mortar and brick surface and mortar strength, usually disregarded in previous models. A comprehensive case study is presented of a three-story IRC frame located in the city of Mirpur, Pakistan, hit by an earthquake of magnitude 5.9 on 24 September 2019. The results obtained from the numerical model show good agreement with the damage patterns observed in situ, thus highlighting the importance of correctly modeling the infill walls when seismically designing or assessing Pakistani buildings that make use of this technology.

In this research the computational modeling of Dry-Stack Block Masonry (DSM) walls subjected to cyclic monotonic loading testing is done. The analytical results were compared with experimental test results of the unreinforced and unconfined DSM cantilever walls subjected to lateral loading along with a constant axial load. ABAQUS has been used for Finite Element Modeling and analysis of the wall. Various material properties are defined for the wall in the software and modeled as a homogeneous material. The proposed numerical models had a good correlation with the experimental data. The test results discussion includes failure moods, load displacement curves, and stress/strain profile. Doi: 10.28991/cej-2021-03091668 Full Text: PDF

This paper discusses the contribution of individuals and their effects on the protection and management of archaeological sites found in the British colonies at the beginning of the 19th Century. Despite all these contributions, the most important bequest is the formation of comprehensive legislation on cultural properties that are still applicable and considered essential to the historic, standing, or ruined, monuments located in Pakistan. It should be noted that Pakistan’s heritage laws are uniformly applicable to all kinds of architectural heritage, archaeological sites, and monuments, irrespective of their nature, state, and classification. This contrasts with the lack of updates and amendments of rules and guidelines for the preservation of heritage sites and monuments across the country from further damages. The paper focuses on the current architectural and heritage management rules and policies of Pakistan, which are based on the British colonial legacy with some (partial) changes introduced since Pakistan’s independence in 1947. Finally, the paper emphasizes the need for the development of advanced management policies and proposed heritage management rules for the preservation of heritage constructions, archaeological sites, and architectural monuments to establish the link between the present and past to remain for future generations.