Database assessment of lateral strength of unreinforced masonry walls according to existing design provisions

Unreinforced masonry (URM) walls, widely used in low-rise and heritage buildings, are highly vulnerable to seismic events. Current evaluation guidelines for assessing the lateral strength of URM walls predominantly rely on empirical or semi-empirical methods derived from calibrated datasets. Consequently, a comparative analysis of the reliability of these existing provisions is essential. In this study, a comprehensive database of 146 URM walls was compiled from 26 research groups and employed to evaluate the accuracy of established guidelines, including ASCE 41-17, NZSEE, Eurocode 6, and GB50003. The comparative analysis showed that ASCE 41-17 provided the most accurate predictions with acceptable safety levels, while NZSEE produced more conservative estimates and excelled in predicting diagonal shear failure modes. Eurocode 6 showed less conservative results under high compressive stress, compared to ASCE 41-17 and NZSEE. The GB50003 model based on Mohr-Coulomb theory showed the lowest accuracy and highest variability in shear strength predictions.