2nd Croatian Conference on Earthquake Engineering 2CroCEE

Recent earthquakes have shown that existing older buildings are not sufficiently safe against seismic loads. This applies to both structural and non-structural elements of buildings. Damage to so-called 'heavy' façade structures is of particular concern, as falling components can cause personal injury and block important traffic and escape routes.
Heavy facades made of masonry, natural stone cladding or concrete panels with dead loads exceeding 100 kg/m² are usually anchored to the supporting structure by steel anchors that transfer the loads from the cladding panels.
Although new façades are very secure against earthquakes, the field of seismic strengthening of heavy façades is largely unproven, although several product systems are available on the market that enable repair and strengthening.
These systems will be investigated to see if they are suitable to take the additional loads caused by earthquakes.
Ongoing trials are expanding the range of fastening systems suitable for heavy façade retrofitting as well as repair. This will utilise the experience already presented at the last 1CroCEE conference. An independent test series will allow the knowledge already gained to be reflected in a range of products for repair.
This paper presents a method for repairing existing facades. This method can be used to preserve the fabric of historic buildings but can also be used to strengthen façade structures with the aim of meeting seismic design requirements, such as protecting human life after an earthquake or enabling rescue operations. As an alternative to large-scale shake table tests, so-called mesoscale tests for checking load-bearing capacity are described. The technical background is explained, and the test results are presented.