Abstract:
The Aurora Tavern was one example of many heritage unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings in New Zealand, and therefore like other existing URM buildings, this hotel was vulnerable to damage should a moderate magnitude earthquake occur. Refurbishment and strengthening work was being implemented on the building, during which in-situ testing was performed to investigate the building’s material properties. The URM materials in the Aurora Tavern were generally in poor condition, and water ingress was observed at various locations in the building. In-situ deformability tests and bed joint shear tests were conducted on-site to determine the masonry stiffness and the mortar bed joint shear strength respectively. In addition, individual brick units and irregular mortar samples were extracted for compression testing in the laboratory. Laboratory mortar compression tests and in-situ deformability tests showed that the mortar compressive strength and masonry Modulus of Elasticity were low. However, the brick compressive and mortar bed joint shear strengths were comparable to those of other buildings that were previously investigated by the research team.