ABSTRACT
Two three story confined masonry buildings scaled 1:2 were tested in the shaking table. The structures represent one axis of a typical building for housing. The walls of the structures were built with concrete multi-perforated units confined with tie-columns and tie-beams. The scaled units were obtained by sawing the ones of the prototype; although they did not have the same perforation pattern they preserved the net area. The floor system was a solid concrete slab. The first building tested did not include joint reinforcement while the second included a high strength wire every three courses. Live load was included with lead ingots and the walls were posttensioned to achieve the required axial stress. The structures were subjected to a several motions based on a synthetic accelerogram with amplitudes progressively scaled up until failure. Preliminary results in terms of displacement capacity and strength are given.
