ISRN UTH-INGUTB-EX-B-2015/31-SE Examensarbete 15 hp Juli 2015 Improved seismic-resistant design of adobe houses in vulnerable areas in Peru - Raising seismic awareness in an Andean community Elin Mattsson IMPROVED SEISMIC-RESISTANT DESIGN OF ADOBE HOUSES IN VULNERABLE AREAS IN PERU Raising seismic awareness in an Andean community Elin Mattsson Department of Engineering Sciences, Construction Engineering, Uppsala University Bachelor´s Degree project 2015 This bachelor´s degree project is made at the Department of Engineering Sciences, Construction Engineering, Uppsala University, Box 337, 751 05 Uppsala, Sweden The project was conducted at the Civil Engineering Division, Department of Engineering, Pontifical Catholic University of PERU (PUCP), Av. Universitaria 1801, Lima, Peru Abstract Improved seismic-resistant design of adobe houses in vulnerable areas in Peru Elin Mattsson Teknisk- naturvetenskaplig fakultet UTH-enheten During the last decades, many seismic reinforcement techniques of adobe houses have been developed. None of the techniques has however reached out to the people Besöksadress: in need, mainly due to high costs. To prevent unacceptable seismic risks in rural areas, Ångströmlaboratoriet it is necessary to develop technology transfers along with training and educational Lägerhyddsvägen 1 Hus 4, Plan 0 programs. PUCP (The Pontifical Catholic University of Peru) has started a training project on Postadress: earthquake resistant adobe constructions, addressed to inhabitants in an Andean Box 536 community. Their attention is set at this time, to the district of Pullo, which is located 751 21 Uppsala in a highly seismic area. 80 % if the population is living in adobe houses and more than Telefon: 50 % of them are living in poverty. PUCP is leading an extensive project, which 018 – 471 30 03 objectives are to work with people in order to make them aware of the vulnerability of unreinforced adobe houses, and practically lean the technique of reinforcement Telefax: with nylon ropes, called halyards. 018 – 471 30 00 On the 24th of August 2014 an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale hit Hemsida: the district of Pullo. The situation in Pullo was evaluated to be heavily affected but http://www.teknat.uu.se/student concluded not to be urgent. Therefore a training project instead of reconstruction program was planned. The initiative aimed to raise seismic awareness among the people, and transfer knowledge on how to build seismic-resistant adobe homes. The work included in this report is part of the long term project at PUCP. Firstly, the acquired knowledge on adobe construction’s techniques, seismic effect on adobe houses built using different methods is included. A more detailed description of the new developed construction system is introduced, which was obtained by the experience gained by direct part-taking on the training project. The training and experimental stage of the project development included experimental testing on different constitutive parts of the constructive system, such as reinforcing rope-knots, manufacturing of adobe scaled building models, training of a portable shacking table, and socio-anthropologic experiments performed in situ. The use of modified tensile experiments, visual observation led to a recommendation of two knots, which proved to bring about the best structural performance in relation to seismic resistance. The manufacture of scale-building models in combination to the portable shaking table proved excellent results for direct comparison of structural behavior as well as in-situ educational purposes, instructing the people of Pullo about the new system. The latter added a direct and deep impact on the people, which results are to be shown in the future, by the follow-up of the project and the construction of new houses using the developed system. Key words: Peru, earthquakes, adobe, reinforcement, training tools, rope-reinforcement, portable shaking table. Handledare: Marcial Blondet Ämnesgranskare: Ivón Hassel Examinator: Caroline Öhman ISRN UTH-INGUTB-EX-B-2015/31-SE i Acknowledgement This degree project has been conducted within a project at PUCP. Parts of this final report will serve as base for future publications on the topic. Foremost, I would like to thank doctor Marcial Blondet for accepting me on his project which made this wonderful experience possible. His guidance, knowledge, insightful comments and hard questions pushed me to encourage my research and allowed me to grow as a research scientist. My greatest gratitude goes to my subject reader, Ivón Hassel, for her continuous support, patience, enthusiasm and immense knowledge on how to perform a thesis. I also want to thank Carlos Sosa for welcoming me, and sharing his knowledge during the work with the ropes. And finally, a very special and grateful thanks to Malena Serrano Lazo. You were there for me from day one. You showed me that everything is possible in Peru, if you just take a safe taxi. I will never forget all the chats and beautiful moments I shared with you. Uppsala, Sweden May 2015 Elin Mattsson ii