New York's Older Brick Buildings Are Especially Vulnerable to Extreme Events, such as Earthquakes and Hurricanes

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- To get a better idea of just how much damage even a moderate earthquake would cause to unreinforced masonry buildings, earthquake-engineering researchers in the University at Buffalo's MCEER are reconstructing brick walls like those in New York City buildings that are approximately 100 years old.

"We are trying to understand how the buildings will behave during earthquakes," says Gilberto Mosqueda, PhD, an associate professor of civil, structural and environmental engineering at UB, and principal investigator on the project funded by UB's MCEER (Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research). "In a lot of cases, due to the age of the buildings, the mortar that holds the bricks together is disintegrating. And the mortar is all that's holding them together, making them very vulnerable, even under moderate earthquakes like the one we experienced this week."

Using bricks retrieved from New York City buildings slated for demolition, as well as data from testing of existing buildings, the researchers have recreated the type of mortar representative of what is there today: a particularly weak type of mortar that uses less cement and more sand, Mosqueda says.

The researchers will use the mortar to build pieces of brick walls, which they will then subject to simulated earthquakes using UB's state-of-the-art shake tables.

The goal is to better understand how these buildings will behave when subjected to earthquake loads, so that new technologies can be developed which could best, and most quickly, address such problems.

"Strengthening buildings so they can better withstand ground motions from earthquakes would also make them better able to perform in high winds during hurricanes," Mosqueda says.

Even without extreme events -- such as this week's earthquake and Hurricane Irene, which is predicted to hit New York and other eastern cities this weekend -- century-old brick buildings throughout the U.S. are showing their age, Mosqueda says. This makes the work of UB's MCEER that much more relevant.

"Some older, unreinforced masonry buildings in New York City are collapsing just due to their own weight or fires," he says. "Finding out how they behave during earthquake loads -- in order to develop retrofit technologies to make them stronger -- would improve their performance in all sorts of hazards, such as high winds and during heavy snowfall, too."

Founded in 1986, MCEER, headquartered at the University at Buffalo, is a national center of excellence in advanced technology applications dedicated to reducing losses from earthquakes and other hazards, and to improving disaster resilience. One of three such centers in the nation established by the National Science Foundation, MCEER has been funded principally over the past two decades with more than $67 million from NSF, more than $47 million from the State of New York and more than $34 million from the Federal Highway Administration. Additional support comes from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, other state governments, academic institutions, foreign governments and private industry.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.