We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
Taquezal Buildings in Nicaragua and Their Earthquake Performance.
- Authors
Holliday, Lisa; Kang, Thomas H.-K.; Mish, Kyran D.
- Abstract
Taquezal is a common earthen building type in Nicaragua. It is constructed by building a wood frame and then packing the frame with mud to create thick earthen walls. The wood frame allows the structure to be constructed without the formwork (which is required for rammed earth buildings) and without first constructing blocks (which is generally required in adobe construction). The wood frame also allows a thinner wall than other earthen building types. Commonly, taquezal roofs are made of timber framing and heavy clay tile roofs. Taquezal buildings are not engineered and therefore are difficult to analyze with modern structural engineering methods. During the 1972 Managua earthquake, nearly 10,000 people died, and most of them were in taquezal buildings. This paper discusses taquezal as a structural system and applies engineering methods to this nonengineered structure. It was found that taquezal buildings perform well during low-to-moderate earthquakes if well maintained. However, if the wood is not maintained and allowed to rot, this degrades the roof diaphragm and wall supports, and the performance is considerably diminished.
- Subjects
NICARAGUA; EFFECT of earthquakes on buildings; BUILDING performance; STRUCTURAL failures; STRUCTURAL engineering
- Publication
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, 2012, Vol 26, Issue 5, p644
- ISSN
0887-3828
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1061/(ASCE)CF.1943-5509.0000266