• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.541-561
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• 2014

This paper approaches the issue of seismic vulnerability assessment strategies for facade walls of traditional masonry buildings through the development of a methodology and its subsequent application to over 600 building facades from the old building stock of the historic city centre of Coimbra. Using the post-earthquake damage assessment of masonry buildings in L'Aquila, Italy, an analytical function was developed and calibrated to estimate the mean damage grade for masonry facade walls. Having defined the vulnerability function for facade walls, damage scenarios were calculated and subsequently used in the development of an emergency planning tool and in the elaboration of an access route proposal for the case study of the historic city centre of Coimbra. Finally, the methodology was pre-validated through the comparison of a set of results obtained from its application and also resourcing to a widely accepted mechanical method on the description of the out-of-plane behaviour of facade walls.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.48-54
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• 2009

Structures to support against slop failures or resist earth pressure like masonry retaining walls or retaining walls have continued to advance and evolve to new eco-friendly, easy-to-construct, crib retaining walls with varied forms and construction methods, meeting the needs of the times. Researches until now, however, have focused on the analyses of site displacement or stability of the whole site including structures like retaining walls, and thus, researches on rational design or method for stability analysis are lacking. Therefore, this study was conducted on a number of stability analyses, such as the visual power line or stability on sliding, being presented for bin walls, which enable vegetation to grow and were developed and applied in varied forms, meeting the development demands for eco-friendly retaining wall structures. This study compared the results of stability analyses, determined their feasibility, and evaluated their stability according to the height and facade slope of retaining walls. According to the results of this study, traditional masonry retaining wall analysis showed rather conservative stability evaluation results in the stability evaluation of bin walls, and the method using the visual power line seems to be objective because it produced similar results to the stability evaluation method on sliding or turnover.

• Journal of architectural history
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.121-135
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• 2010

This study was to analyze the architectural characteristics and facade construction of brick masonry auditorium through the Auditorium of Namsan Primary School in 1936. The results of this study were described separately as follows. 1. The auditorium is located away from the school buildings, and its plane is a chamber of rectangle type with an entrance installed on each of the four sides. 2. The external appearance is Renaissance eclectic style, laid red bricks on the lower wall of the window and having a mansard roof. The front and the rear are symmetric with respect to the projected wall at the center. 3. As to the structure of the building, a concrete lower wall was built on the concrete continuous footing, and the brick wall was constructed on the lower wall. The roof is queen post roof truss, and the wall girders were installed on the brick wall. 4. The auditorium has had a number of repairing and maintenance works, which changed the roof and windows outside and the floor, walls, ceiling, etc. inside. 5. The decorative elements of external appearance include lower wall, brick wall, entrances, windows, roof, and dormer windows. The brick wall gives verticality and solidity to the surface of the wall, and the lower wall and wall girders are connected like a cornice of the wall. The surface of the mansard roof and dormer windows express a stable vertically oriented shape.