Seismic Retrofitting of Unreinforced Masonry Buildings – A Literature Review

In the last two decades, many seismic retrofitting techniques for masonry structures have been developed and practiced, but there are only limited guidelines for practicing engineers in Australia. This paper reviews the literature on seismic retrofitting techniques for unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings and compares their advantages and disadvantages to identify the most effective and economic retrofitting method for URM buildings. It also presents the basic concepts and criteria of seismic retrofitting. It is expected that this paper will provide some helpful information to assist Australian engineers to retrofit URM buildings.