Shaking Table Tests on a Recycled Concrete Block Masonry Building

A full scale model of a block masonry building with the tie column + ring beam + cast-in-place slab system, which was made of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC), was tested on the MTS shaking table at the State Key Laboratory for Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China. The design and production of the test model, the design of the testing program and the experimental phenomenon were described in detail. The natural frequency, equivalent stiffness of the structure, the structural damping ratio, the acceleration response, the seismic force response, the displacement response, the base shear response and the structural fragility etc. were analyzed and discussed. The test results demonstrate that the RAC block masonry structure confined by the 'tie column + ring beam' system is a good solution to withstand earthquakes. The storey drift ratio and the overall behavior meet the requirements of Chinese design code. Generally, the RAC block masonry structure bounded by the 'tie column + ring beam' system with proper design exhibits good seismic behavior and can resist the earthquake attacks under different seismic levels in this study.