Abstract:
Unreinforced masonry (URM) domestic chimneys are highly vulnerable and potentially earthquake prone building elements that represent a hazard to life inside and outside the buildings that they are located on. In addition, past New Zealand earthquakes have resulted in a large number of insurance claims relating to the damage associated with URM chimney failures. As part of ongoing research to establish a database of New Zealand URM chimneys, a statistical survey was conducted in Dunedin and Auckland. Key details and findings are provided from the 910 surveyed chimneys. Currently there is limited experimental research that has been undertaken on cost-effective retrofit techniques that increase the seismic resilience of domestic URM chimneys. In order to increase the pool of knowledge, a post-tensioned (PT) retrofit was experimentally field tested on an old full-scale URM chimney. Findings specific to the tested URM chimney showed a 2.6 times increase in the capacity of the retrofitted URM chimney.
