Under the auspices of the UJNR on Wind and Seismic Effects, both, the U.S. and Japan are working since 1984 on a coordinated earthquake research program on masonry structures. The target of the Japanese program is the development of comprehensive design guidelines for medium rise RM structures, in particular, the five story apartment building. Based on a detailed understanding of the structural behavior of RM buildings derived from analytical and experimental research programs on materials, components, sub-assemblages and planar frame structures, the design guidelines (draft) was developed.

The five story full scale prototype test on a reinforced concrete masonry building was planned and carried out in order to experimentally verify analytical models which are assumed and dealt with in the draft of the design guidelines.

The five story test building is 14m in height, 13.79m in length in the loading direction, 15.19m in width in the transverse direction. The prototype structure is a typical apartment building in Japan.

The test was carried out from mid-November 1987 to the end of January 1988.

In this paper, the design and construction of the test building, as well as the overall test plan of the test specimen are first introduced, then, the test results on forced vibration tests, cyclic static load tests and a pseudo dynamic test are presented and discussed.

Masonry buildings, both concrete and clay masonry buildings, are at present few in Japan compared with the other structure type of buildings, such as timber houses, reinforced concrete and steel buildings, because of the past earthquake damages of unreinforced masonry buildings which construction method was imported to Japan one hundred years ago from European non-earthquake countries. Through this experimental research program including the five story full scale building test concerning medium-rise reinforced masonry buildings, masonry buildings are expected to be looked at again and to increase in number in Japan.

Shigenobu Koizumi
August, 1989

^*1Director General
Building Research Institute
Ministry of Construction