Shaking Table Testing of Adobe Masonry Structures

This chapter presents the seismic simulation systems (shaking tables) as essential resources for experimental research on adobe masonry structures. An overview of selected relevant shaking tables existing in laboratories around the world gives an idea of the broad testing scope possible with this type of equipment. Its use in testing of adobe masonry structures goes back to 1986 at the University of California at Berkeley and to 1988 at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP). Shaking table testing has been considered the experimental technique that may closest reproduce the real behaviour of an adobe structure during earthquakes. After the description of a typical shaking table test procedure, based on more than thirty years of PUCP experience, some seismic simulation tests on adobe masonry structures performed in different countries are briefly described. Each case presents the basic characteristics of the shaking table and some qualitative results obtained to understand the seismic behaviour of adobe masonry structures.