Testing of Materials and Building Components of Historic Adobe Buildings in Peru: Seismic Retrofitting Project: Research Report

This publication summarizes and describes the conclusions of more than 300 experimental tests carried out from 2011 to 2014 as part of the Seismic Retrofitting Project (SRP), and characterizes the material properties and structural behavior of the components of the four building prototypes selected for this project. The SRP aims to design and test easy-to-implement seismic retrofitting techniques, both traditional and state-of-the art, as well as maintenance programs that improve the structural performance of earthen historic buildings in Peru and other countries in Latin America. The performed tests were developed and carried out by the Escuela de Ciencias de Ingeniería of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) in collaboration with the Getty and SRP consultants. Some of these tests were performed for the first time on earthen materials and/or structural components, providing valuable information to the field. Therefore, this publication is of significant value to engineers and conservation architects working in seismic areas. Partial results of this testing program have been published in the proceedings of several international conferences. However, this publication provides a more comprehensive overview and a deeper understanding of the mechanical behavior of materials and structural components of historic earthen buildings in Peru. The performed tests also provided valuable information to the numerical models that have been developed by TecMinho, University of Minho, Portugal to analyze the seismic capacity of each of the building prototypes. The results of this modeling phase are the subject of the SRP publications: Recommendations for Advanced Modeling of Historic Earthen Sites; Modeling of Prototype Buildings; and, Simplified Calculations for the Structural Analysis of Earthen Historic Sites.