Event | Seismic Resilience of Confined Masonry Buildings

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Session Overview

Confined masonry is practiced across countries home to 3.5 billion people, nearly half the world. In this system, RC tie columns and tie beams confine loadbearing masonry walls, bonded through a toothed interface that makes them act as one wall. The tie columns can look like frame columns, but they do not behave like them.

Dr. Svetlana Brzev, who has led the Confined Masonry Network since 2008, walks through why that difference matters for modeling, design, and the many regions still building confined masonry without a code for it.

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Who Should Attend

Structural and architectural engineers designing or reviewing confined masonry, especially without a national code to reference
Junior engineers who want a working design method before their first live project
Senior engineers assessing existing buildings or guiding junior staff

Learning Objectives

📌Why Can't Confined Masonry Use the Same Model as an RC Frame?

📌When Do You Need an Engineered Approach Instead of a Prescriptive One?

📌 Where Is Confined Masonry Still Built Without a Code?

Good to Know

What is confined masonry?
- A loadbearing wall system confined by RC tie columns and tie beams to prevent collapse in an earthquake.

What is Wall Index?
- The ratio of total wall area to floor area per direction, used to check lateral capacity under a prescriptive design.

Digital twin integration
- Vision and vibration data are fused into a continuously updated virtual model of the bridge, enabling damage localization and predictive maintenance planning.

Speaker

Dr. Svetlana Brzev

Professor at Department of Civil Engineering, University of British Columbia, Canada

Ph.D. in Earthquake Engineering, University of Roorkee, India. 40 years in seismic design and retrofitting of RC and masonry buildings. Leads the Confined Masonry Network since 2008. Serves on CSA S304 and Eurocode 8 masonry committees, and was part of the research team behind the Global Earthquake Model. Currently a World Bank consultant on school seismic retrofit projects in Central Asia. Past Vice President of EERI, current Director of IAEE. 200+ papers, 3 textbooks, named a Fellow of Engineers Canada in 2015.