As a stimulus-sensitive material, the difference in composition, fabrication process, and influencing factors will have a great effect on the mechanical properties of a superelastic Ni-Ti shape memory alloy (SMA) wire, so the seismic performance of the self-centering steel brace with SMA wires may not be accurately obtained. In this paper, the cyclic tensile tests of a kind of SMA wire with a 1 mm diameter and special element composition were tested under multi-working conditions, which were pretreated by first tensioning to the 0.06 strain amplitude for 40 cycles, so the mechanical properties of the pretreated SMA wires can be simulated in detail. The accuracy of the numerical results with the improved model of Graesser’s theory was verified by a comparison to the experimental results. The experimental results show that the number of cycles has no significant effect on the mechanical properties of SMA wires after a certain number of cyclic tensile training. With the loading rate increasing, the pinch effect of the hysteresis curves will be enlarged, while the effective elastic modulus and slope of the transformation stresses in the process of loading and unloading are also increased, and the maximum energy dissipation capacity of the SMA wires appears at a loading rate of 0.675 mm/s. Moreover, with the initial strain increasing, the slope of the transformation stresses in the process of loading is increased, while the effective elastic modulus and slope of the transformation stresses in the process of unloading are decreased, and the maximum energy dissipation capacity appears at the initial strain of 0.0075. In addition, a good agreement between the test and numerical results is obtained by comparing with the hysteresis curves and energy dissipation values, so the numerical model is useful to predict the stress–strain relations at different stages. The test and numerical results will also provide a basis for the design of corresponding self-centering steel dampers.

Masonry structures are widely used in developing countries due to their low cost and simple construction, especially in remote areas, where there are a large number of houses without seismic measures. These buildings are prone to collapse and cause a lot of casualties, even under the action of small earthquakes. For the reinforcement of this structure, a cheap, effective, and easy‐to‐construct reinforcement method is urgently needed. Therefore, this article studies the reinforcement method of polypropylene bands (PP‐bands). We have carried out low‐frequency cyclic loading tests for two PP‐band reinforced masonry walls and two compared masonry walls. We mainly studied the influence of PP‐band and different compressive strengths of plastering mortar on the masonry wall’s seismic capacity. The seismic indicators mainly studied in this article include ultimate bearing capacity, energy dissipation capacity, stiffness degradation, and hysteresis characteristics. The experimental results show that the PP‐band can greatly enhance the seismic capacity of the masonry wall. The ultimate bearing capacity, energy dissipation capacity, and displacement ductility of the PP‐band reinforced wall are increased by 38%–48%, 22%–47%, and 138%–226%.

Reinforcement with polypropylene bands is a newly arisen seismic technique. it can effectively improve the ultimate shear and flexural capacity and seismic performance of the structure, sudden collapse of whole structure can also be avoided, so it is especially suitable for the seismic reinforcement of rural masonry structures. In recent years, it has been gradually applied in the reinforcement and restoration of masonry structures. Based on the latest development of research, the influence of reinforcement with polypropylene bands (pp-bands) on the shear, flexural and seismic behavior of masonry structure were systematically introduced. The influence of the main reinforcement parameters such as mesh size, grid layout direction, connection mode, connection strength and mortar layer on the reinforcement effect were summarized. Deficiency of the current research and the key problems that need to be solved were pointed out. Through the study on research status of reinforcement technology of pp-bands in masonry structures, references for further research on the strengthening technology of pp-bands and the seismic reinforcement of rural masonry buildings in China were given.

The main components which affect the earthquake damage grades classification of multistory masonry buildings and the damage characters are summarized and analyzed through the statistics and analysis of a large number of previous earthquake damage data. According to the standard of earthquake damage grades classification, the damage numbers of each component of multistory masonry buildings under different earthquake damage indexes are analyzed quantitatively and the calculation formulas based on the relationship between the damage numbers of components and the earthquake damage index under different cases are given; Based on the structural analysis of multistory masonry buildings and the research of earthquake damage data, the calculation formulas of the earthquake damage distributions in different floors and main components’ different positions on the same floor of multistory masonry buildings are given, which provides us a platform to objectively understand the earthquake damage distribution of multistory masonry buildings; The earthquake damage distribution is an important factor to affect the realistic degree of the 3-D damage models in the scene simulation system for earthquake disaster, this paper also provides a theoretical basis for the modeling of the 3-D damage models of multistory masonry structure; Finally, the earthquake damage distribution of the bearing wall of a five-storey masonry building in the minor damage has been given as an example.