Rubble‐stone masonry structures are found abundantly in the Asian countries along the Himalayan range. Such structures are usually constructed in dry‐stone masonry or are constructed in mud mortar, which makes them susceptible to damage and collapse in earthquakes. In order to study the seismic behavior of these structures, dynamic shake table tests on three reduced‐scale rubble‐stone masonry models were conducted. The models comprised a representative school building, a residential building, and a model incorporating simple cost‐effective features in the form of horizontal and vertical reinforced concrete elements. This paper presents the results of shake table tests carried out on rubble‐stone masonry buildings including: damage pattern, capacity curves, damage limit states, and response modification factors of these structures. Test data indicates that seismic performance of rubble‐stone masonry structures can be significantly improved by incorporating cost‐effective features such as vertical members and relatively thin horizontal bands.

Beam–column connections are the most critical components of reinforced concrete (RC) structures. They serve as a load transfer path and take a significant portion of the overall shear. Joints in RC structures constructed with no seismic provisions have an insufficient capacity and ductility under lateral loading and can cause the progressive failure of the entire structure. The joint may fail in the shear prior to the connecting beam and column elements. Therefore, several modeling techniques have been devised in the past to capture the non-linear response of such joints. Modeling techniques used to capture the non-linear response of reinforced-concrete-beam–column joints range from simplified lumped plasticity models to detailed fiber-based finite element (FE) models. The macro-modeling technique for joint modeling is highly efficient in terms of the computational effort, analysis time, and computer memory requirements, and is one of the most widely used modeling techniques. The non-linear shear response of the joint panel and interface bond–slip mechanism are concentrated in zero-length linear and rotational springs while the connecting elements are modeled through elastic elements. The shear response of joint panels has also been captured through rigid panel boundary elements with rotational springs. The computational efficiency of these models is significantly high compared to continuum models, as each joint act as a separate supe-element. This paper aims to provide an up-to-date review of macro-modeling techniques for the analysis and assessment of RC-beam–column connections subjected to lateral loads. A thorough understanding of existing models is necessary for developing new mechanically adequate and computationally efficient joint models for the analysis and assessment of deficient RC connections. This paper will provide a basis for further research on the topic and will assist in the modification and optimization of existing models. As each model is critically evaluated, and their respective capabilities and limitations are explored, it should help researchers to improve and build on modeling techniques both in terms of accuracy and computational efficiency.

In this work, a phase field approach to modelling fracture in asphalt mixtures is presented. More specifically, a cohesive zone-based phase field model is used. The crack in the material is modelled as a regularised damage, smeared over a region of finite length, using a damage phase field variable. The damage variable takes on the value of 1 for a fully damaged surface to 0 for an intact solid. The energy dissipated due to inelastic behaviour in the damage zone is modelled using a cohesive zone concept and the associated traction-separation constitutive law. The model is implemented in a finite element framework. Several numerical examples are presented to show the performance of the model in simulating fracture in asphalt mixtures at low temperatures. Fracture under mode-I, mode-II and mixed mode is simulated. The numerical results of crack initiation and propagation agrees well with experimental observations.