Hamid Mahmood
B.Sc. (Hons.) Civil Engg. (Lahore)
M.Sc. Civil Engg. Structures (Calgary)
University of Auckland
PhD Candidate
2006 – 2009
Supervisor: Associate Professor Jason Ingham
Area of interest:
Seismic retrofit of unreinforced masonry (URM) walls using fibre reinforced polymers (FRP)
Publications:
Russell, A. P., Mahmood, H., Ingham, J. M. (2007). “Assessment of the material properties of New Zealand’s unreinforced masonry building stock.”, Proc., Third International Conference on Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Computation (SEMC 2007), Capetown, South Africa, September 10-12, 2007.
Mahmood, H., Russell, A. P., Ingham, J. M. “Laboratory testing of unreinforced masonry walls retrofitted with glass-FRP sheets.”, 14th International Brick and Block Masonry Conference (14IBMAC), Sydney, Australia, February 17-20, 2008.
Russell, A. P., Mahmood, H., and Ingham, J. M. (2007). "Pseudo-static in-plane testing of typical New Zealand unreinforced masonry walls." 8th Pacific Conference on Earthquake Engineering, 5-7 December, Singapore.
Mahmood, H., Russell, A. P., Ingham, J. M. (abstract submitted). “Monotonic testing of unreinforced and FRP-retrofitted masonry walls prone to shear failure in an earthquake.”, 14th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering (14WCEE), Beijing, China, October 12-17, 2008.
Contact details:
Hamid Mahmood
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
The University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019
Auckland
New Zealand
ph: +64 9 373 7599 x 84521
email: hmah012@aucklanduni.ac.nz
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Synopsis of Research
Unreinforced masonry (URM) structures are considered earthquake-prone due to their often-observed poor performance in earthquakes. A significant number of URM buildings exist in New Zealand. The presence of these URM structures exposes the citizens of New Zealand to substantial risks in the event of an earthquake. According to an estimate, a major earthquake in national capital, Wellington, could leave up to 1,600 dead and 10,000 injured. The New Zealand Building Act 2004 requires all earthquake-prone structures to be either retrofitted to enhance their expected seismic performance or demolished.
In response to issues discussed above, a research programme has been initiated to develop economical and simple retrofit solutions for New Zealand’s URM buildings using fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) materials. FRP materials present advantages over conventional retrofit materials due to their ease of application and lower weights. Past studies have indicated the effectiveness of FRP materials as a seismic retrofit solution for URM structures. However, most of these studies have focussed on the testing of building components (walls). Additionally, there is a dearth of data on dynamic testing of URM components and buildings. Also, no FRP-URM bond strength data is available for New Zealand’s URM.
A comprehensive research programme has been designed that includes laboratory tests on both URM walls (components) and simple buildings. All test specimens will be built using recycled New Zealand bricks and retrofitted using different FRP materials. Both pseudo-static and dynamic tests will be performed. The test results will be used to create a database for use by related professionals and develop design guidelines for the seismic retrofit of URM structures using FRP materials.
Further information can be found in Mahmood, Russell and Ingham (2008) (reproduced with permission).