Report #: 184

Report Date:

Country: CUBA

Housing Type:

Housing Sub-Type:

Author(s): Grisel Morejon Blanco, Kenia Leyva Chang, Dario Candebat Sanchez, Zulima Rivera Alvarez, Yelena Berenguer Heredia, Madelin Villalon Semanat, Dominik H. Lang, Abdelghani Meslem

Last Updated: 01/26/2016

Regions Where Found: Santiago de Cuba

Summary: Nonductile RC frames with unreinforced masonry infill walls made of rectangular fired clay bricks or hollow blocks

Length of time practiced: 51-75 years

Still Practiced: Yes

In practice as of: Pre-1985 until today

Building Occupancy: Residential, unknown typeSingle dwelling

Typical number of stories: 1-5

Terrain-Flat:

Terrain-Sloped:

Comments:

Plan Shape: Rectangular, solid

Additional comments on plan shape:

Typical plan length (meters):

Typical plan width (meters):

Typical story height (meters):

Type of Structural System: Other

Additional comments on structural system: Gravity: RC frame: RC solid slabs, transferring the gravity loads to the beams and columns and finally to the footingsLateral: RC frame: Framing elements lacks ductile detailing, the stiffness of infill walls is not considered in the design

Gravity load-bearing & lateral load-resisting systems:

Typical wall densities in direction 1: >20%

Typical wall densities in direction 2: >20%

Additional comments on typical wall densities:

Wall Openings:

Is it typical for buildings of this type to have common walls with adjacent buildings?:

Modifications of buildings:

Type of Foundation: Shallow Foundation: Reinforced concrete isolated footing

Additional comments on foundation:

Type of Floor System: Cast-in-place beamless reinforced concrete floor

Additional comments on floor system:

Type of Roof System: Cast-in-place beamless reinforced concrete roofRoof system, other

Additional comments on roof system: Cast-in-situ flat slabs or zinc plates or corrugated asbestos boards

Additional comments section 2:

Who is involved with the design process?: Owner

Roles of those involved in the design process:

Expertise of those involved in the design process:

Who typically builds this construction type?: Other

Roles of those involved in the building process:

Expertise of those involved in building process:

Construction process and phasing:

Construction issues

Is this construction type address by codes/standards?: Yes

Applicable codes or standards: NC 46:1999 “Construcciones sismorresistentes. Requisitos para el diseno y construccion”

Process for building code enforcement:

Are building permits required?:

Is this typically informal construction?:

Is this construction typically authorized as per development control rules?:

Additional comments on building permits and development control rules:

Typical problems associated with this type of construction:

Who typically maintains buildings of this type?: Other

Additional comments on maintenance and building condition:

Unit construction cost: 200 CUC/m2

Labor requirements:

Additional comments section 3:

Damage patterns observed in past earthquakes for this construction type: Some damage was observed during moderate earthquakes. The main damage patterns consisted of: fine cracks in infill walls, mainly starting from corners of openings and vertical fine cracks at wall corners.

The main reference publication used in developing the statements used in this table is FEMA 310 Handbook for the Seismic Evaluation of Buildings-A Pre-standard, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Washington, D.C., 1998.

The total width of door and window openings in a wall is: For brick masonry construction in cement mortar : less than ½ of the distance between the adjacent cross walls; For adobe masonry, stone masonry and brick masonry in mud mortar: less than 1/3 of the distance between the adjacent cross walls; For precast concrete wall structures: less than 3/4 of the length of a perimeter wall.

Vertical irregularities typically found in this construction type: Other

Horizontal irregularities typically found in this construction type: Other

Seismic deficiency in walls: Beams and columns are not connected rigidly to provide moment-resistant frame action. Most joints exhibit weak column-strong beam behavior. All longitudinal reinforcement bars are often spliced at the same section resulting in stress concentration in concrete.Unreinforced masonry infill panels often dislodge from RC frame during out-of-plane vibration because of poor connection with frame members. Frequent crushing of masonry infill is also often observed due to low strength of bricks and mortar.

Seismic deficiency in foundation: Spread foots are not properly connected to each other with plinth beams. When these beams exist, they are not designed to resist moments resulting from earthquake forces.

For information about how seismic vulnerability ratings were selected see the Seismic Vulnerability Guidelines

Additional comments section 5: Moderate vulnerability

Brzev, S., Scawthorn, C., Charleson, A.W., and Jaiswal, K. (2012). GEM basic building taxonomy, Report produced in the context of the GEM Ontology and Taxonomy Global Component project, 45 pp.

Cuban National Bureau of Standards (2013). Norma Cubana NC46: 2013, Construcciones sismoresistentes - Requisitos basicos para el diseno y construccon, 1. Edicion, January 2013, Officina Nacional de Normalizacion (NC), Habana, Cuba.

Jaiswal, K.S., and Wald, D.J. (2008). Creating a global building inventory for earthquake loss assessment and risk management, U.S. Geological Survey Open-file report 2008-1160, 106 pp.

Lang D.H., Meslem, A., Lindholm C., Blanco, G.M., Chang, K.L., Sanchez, D.C., and Alvarez, Z.R. (2015). Earthquake Loss Evaluation (ELE) for the City of Santiago de Cuba (Cuba), Report no. 15-015, Kjeller - Santiago de Cuba, October 2015, 90pp.

Medina A., Escobar E., Ortiz G. Ramirez M., Duiaz L., Mondelo F., Montejo N., Rodriguez H., Guevara T. and Acosta J. (1999). Reconocimiento geologo-geofisico de la cuenca de Santiago de Cuba, con fines de Riesgo Sismico. Empresa Geominera de Oriente, Santiago de Cuba. 32 pp.

Mendez I., Ortiz G., Aguller M., Rodriguez E., Llull E., Guevara T., Lopez T., Guilart M., Mustelier M., Gentoiu M. and Lay M. (2001). Base de datos digital de los levantamientos regionales de Cuba Oriental. Empresa Geologo-Minera de Oriente (E.G.M.O.) y Oficina Nacional de Recursos Minerales (O.N.R.M).

Morejon Blanco, G., Leyva Chang, K., Candebat Sanchez, D., Rivera Alvarez, Z., Berenguer Heredia, Y., Villalon Semanat, M., Lang, D.H., and Meslem, A. (2015). Building Classification Scheme for the City of Santiago de Cuba (Cuba), Report no. 15-010, Kjeller - Santiago de Cuba, August 2015, 30 pp.

SNIP (1963). Construction in Seismic Regions: Norms of Designing, SNIP II-A. 12-62, Moscow, 1963.