SAN BARTOLOMÉ, ANGEL1; QUIUN, DANIEL2; ICOCHEA ALONSO3, FERNÁNDEZ ALEJANDRO4

1) Professor, Catholic University of Peru, Department of Engineering, asanbar@pucp.edu.pe [deceased Feb. 2014]

2) Professor, Catholic University of Peru, Department of Engineering, dquiun@pucp.edu.pe

3 Civil Engineer, Catholic University of Peru, Faculty of Science and Engineering, alonso.icochea@pucp.pe

4 Civil Engineer, Catholic University of Peru, Faculty of Science and Engineering, afernandezl@pucp.pe

In recent years in Peru, many parapet walls or sills in buildings are built with silica lime masonry units of 100-mm thickness (called placa P-10 in Peru). Their behaviour under out-of-plane forces due to a severe earthquake is yet unknown, despite that the failure by overturning of the parapets could be extremely dangerous. This paper deals with the experimental behaviour of four different P-10 parapets under out-of-plane forces. The tests consisted in shaking table tests and static monotonic loads, performed at the Structures Laboratory of the Catholic University of Peru.

The dimensions of the four walls were 1.53 m long, 0.9 m tall, and 100 mm thickness. They were constructed with different specifications, using the same construction materials and workmanship. After visiting several buildings under construction, we selected the worst and the best construction technique of P-10 parapets, in order to compare them with the producer’s specifications.

Keywords: Parapets, silica-lime, out-of-plane, shaking table, tests, overturning