3.1 Damage evolution
After each seismic loading, the structural damage status of SMLC was investigated in detail. As shown in Fig. 6, the cracks were accurately drawn, showing the evolution of the damage pattern on each facade. New cracks appeared after each load was marked in red, while those that have appeared in previously loadings are indicated in black.
When the structure was at PGA = 0.14 g (DS1), the model was dominated by rigid body movement, no visible deformation and cracks appear, and the overall structure was still in the stage of elastic deformation. When PGA = 0.20 g (DS2), slight damage occurred in the local area of the specimen, and some hairline cracks appeared on the upper and lower ends of the wall on both sides of the east and west. PGA increased to 0.44 g, hairline cracks appeared in many places in the specimen, but the overall performance was excellent, and the main body of the cave was in the elastoplastic stage. Entering PGA = 0.60 g (DS3), the cracks at the vault of the cave continue developed, and the damage to the structure was intensified in most places. The cracks at the connection between the middle cave leg and the foundation were connected, and the maximum width reached 0.5 mm. Entering PGA = 0.80 g (DS4), cracks were formed at the connection between the middle cave leg and the foundation, and at the same time, the crack at the cave face extended into the hole (width 1-2.2 mm) until the back wall. Roof fall appeared in the structure was on the verge of collapse. The damage evolution mechanism of the SMLC structure and the controlled facade of each damage level are shown in Table 10.
Table 10
Summary table of damage limit states for the building specimen
Facade
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DL1
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DL2
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DL3
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DL4
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North wall
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No visible damage
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At a distance of 300 mm from the bottom of the wall and 450 mm from the east edge, a 30 mm long horizontal hairline crack appeared.
At a distance of 800 mm from the bottom of the wall, a 100 mm long horizontal crack appeared.
At a distance of 500 mm from the west edge, a radial crack extending upwards appeared at the bottom of the wall.
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Cracks appeared at the bottom of the wall and extended 600mm to the west.
The upper part of the wall is 150mm away from the west edge, and a vertical crack of 400mm in length appears and is connected with the horizontal crack on the lower side.
At a distance of 500mm from the bottom of the wall and 500mm from the east edge, a 350mm vertical crack appeared and was connected to the upper crack.
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The bottom crack develops diagonally upwards and connects with the crack in the northwest corner of the kiln roof, forming a through crack.
There are two upward cracks in the middle of the east side of the wall, one diagonally to the west connects the legs of the east middle cave, and the other extends vertically up to the cave top, and the width is close to 5mm.
There are many cracks in the middle of the wall extending to the bottom of the wall, all of which are penetrating cracks.
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South wall
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Hairline cracks at cave top
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On the cave top on the west side cave, vertical hairline cracks appeared.
At the entrance of the cave on the west side cave, a 130 mm long diagonal crack appeared and extended into the inner cave.
A small crack of 38-50mm in length appeared on the bottom of the middle legs of both sides.
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The crack on the west side cave top extends down to the vault, and the width of the crack on the upper part extends to 13mm.
On the vault of the east side cave, diagonal cracks appeared and upward extended to the cave top.
At the joint between the arch and the middle leg on the east side cave, a horizontal penetration crack appeared, extending 550mm to inner cave.
At the joint between the arch and the middle leg on the west side cave, a through crack appeared and extended to the inner cave by 1000 mm.
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There are several diagonal cracks perpendicular to the arch axis on the cave spandrel of west side cave and middle cave.
The crack of the arch vault on the west side cave is connected to the crack of the cave top. The cracks at the arch foot and arch vault of the west cave extend to the back wall.
The cracks of the arch vault on the east side cave are connected with the two cracks on the east wall, and the cracks on the vault are vertically connected to the cave top.
A slight leaning has been emerged on the middle legs.
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East wall
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No visible damage
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At the top of the wall, a small horizontal crack appeared.
At a distance of 500 mm from the north edge and 200 mm from the bottom, a 20 mm long diagonal crack appeared.
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The cracks on the cave top continued to extend, and horizontal cracks appeared on both sides of the wall.
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A parabola-shaped crack appeared in the upper part of the wall, and the horizontal crack that appeared at the same time was connected to the herringbone crack near the south side of the cave.
There is a horizontal crack at the connection between the bottom of the wall and the foundation.
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West wall
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No visible damage
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At a distance of 400 mm from the top of the wall, a 500 mm long horizontal crack appeared.
At the bottom of the wall 500 mm from the north edge, a 360 mm long horizontal crack appeared.
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At the top of the west side wall 400 mm down, a long horizontal crack appeared.
At the top of the wall near the south edge, a 120 mm long diagonal crack appeared.
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The crack in the middle of the wall communicates with the cracks on the cave top of the southwest and southeast caves and forms a parabolic connection crack.
There is a horizontal crack at the connection between the wall and the foundation, and there are signs of sliding.
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Global
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The specimen is not damaged.
Governed by the South wall.
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Maximum demand with minor structure damage.
Hairline cracks appeared at the edges of the structure, and the overall structure has not been significantly damaged.
Governed by the North and South walls.
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Maximum demand with moderate structure damage.
Governed by the North and South walls.
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Maximum demand with heavy structure damage before reaching near-collapse conditions.
Governed by the North and South walls.
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Due to the whiplash effect, the movement of the top of the structure was more intense, resulting in cracks first generally appearing in the cave roof. It could be found by observing the location where the cracks were concentrated, the damage of the north wall (seen from the south as the back wall in the cave) was mostly concentrated near the east and west edges, and there were long continuous cracks from top to bottom; however, the location of the middle cave had been less damaged, only a slight X-shaped shear crack appeared in the cave and not penetration. Because of the torsional effect of the structure, the farther away from the center axis, the more considerable damage occurred under the action of seismic loads. Some minor slip cracks were observed at the connection between the bottom of the structure and the structure, indicating that the bottom of the cave leg was well connected to the foundation during the loading process, and no apparent slip occurred. The damage of the cave leg itself was relatively light. Still, several horizontal cracks were appeared at the joint between the cave leg and the arch foot, especially the position of the middle cave leg, which was also caused by the uneven distribution of vertical stiffness. Tensile cracks perpendicular to the arch axis also appeared in varying degrees at the above arch. Due to the difference in dynamic response to seismic loading on both sides of the arch foot, led to the tensile stress generated above the arch. The failure of the east and west side wall was relative lightly, and the cracks were concentrated in the upper half of the wall, which was due to the external leaning effect around the Y-axis caused by the earthquake in the X direction and the influence of the artificial mass above the structure. By analyzing the final damage form of the specimen, the weak positions of the stone cave structure are concentrated in the vault, internal wall, and back wall. When the SMLCs are protected in the future, the strength of these weak locations should be increased so that the structure will not be severely damaged or even collapsed under the action of earthquakes. Loaded to PGA = 0.8 g, the crack width of the test piece increased significantly, the strength loss of the masonry units was severe, and the specimen reached a critical damage level (DL4) (Fig. 7).
3.2 Dynamic characteristics
Dynamic characteristics are inherent properties of the structure itself, and changes in dynamic characteristics such as natural frequency (ω) and damping ratio (ζ) can reflect changes in the stiffness of the structure before and after loading (Preciado et al. 2019; Pelà et al. 2013). After loading each PGA, frequency-sweep with white noise obtained the natural frequency of the model, and used the half-power bandwidth calculation method to achieve the model damping ratio. The natural vibration frequency and damping ratio of the X- and Y-direction of the structure obtained by the white noise processing at various levels are shown in Fig. 8.
The natural vibration frequency of the X-direction and Y-direction decreased with the increasing of the loading level (PGA), as shown in Fig. 8(a). This was due to the continuous accumulation of structural damage during the step-by-step loading of the model, which led to the gradual decrease of the model structure stiffness. In the initial state of the structure, the initial natural frequency and stiffness in the X direction were more significant than in the Y direction. After loading, the X- and Y-direction natural frequencies decreased to 50.54% and 29.92% of the initial state, respectively, indicating that the X-direction suffered more damage from earthquakes than the Y-direction. With the increase of seismic peak acceleration, the damping ratio of X-direction and Y-direction structures increased (Fig. 8(b)), and with the accumulation of damage, cracks were generated inside the model structure, and the cracks between the model structure foundation and the base gradually development. As the friction energy consumption of the model structure increased, the damping ratio of the structure increased. In the initial state, the Y-direction damping ratio was 3.7 times that of the X-direction damping ratio, indicating that under earthquake action, the X-direction vibration was more robust, and the speed of Y-direction structural attenuation was faster. Compared with the damping ratio before loading, the amplitude of the Y-direction damping ratio change (87.93%) after loading was much smaller than the X-direction (370.15%) damping ratio change. It could be inferred that the structural damage was mainly concentrated in the X-direction.
3.3 Seismic response
(1) Acceleration response
The acceleration amplification factor β is often used to reflect the dynamic response of building structure, and its value is the ratio of the value of the peak response of the structure to the input peak ground acceleration. The input peak ground acceleration adopted the measured value of the acceleration sensor (A23x, A24y, A25z) placed on the ground beam. The peak response acceleration of each crucial part of the stone cave structure taken the maximum value in a single direction (X or Y), two directions (XY), three directions (XYZ). Overall, the acceleration response regularity of stone cave structure under the three seismic waves was very close, and the structural response under the EL wave was relatively large, so in the subsequent analysis, the EL wave was used as an example for detailed analysis. In X and Y direction, the study of dynamic amplification factor under the El wave taken into PGA of 0.07 g (Frequent earthquake of 7-degree), 0.20 g (Fortification earthquake of 7-degree), 0.44 g (Rare earthquake of 7 degrees and fortification earthquake of 8 degrees), 0.80 g (Rare earthquake of 8 degrees) as examples, and the acceleration amplification factor of critical parts of stone cave is shown in Fig. 9.
For the X-direction, the acceleration amplification factor at the vault of section B-B was smaller than that at the vault of section A-A, because the back wall had a limiting effect on the acceleration response of its adjacent vault. Because the width of the external wall was more significant than that of the internal wall, it had a higher resistance to lateral displacement stiffness, so that the acceleration amplification factor was smaller. Before the fortification intensity (PGA = 0.44 g), the amplified response at the free edge (section A-A) was always higher than at the section B-B of the corresponding member. When the destruction load (0.80 g) was reached, the acceleration amplification factor of the middle cave was significantly reduced. The damage of the external wall was minor due to the larger thickness, and the acceleration amplification factor was not significantly reduced.
Before the fortification intensity (0.20 g), the acceleration response of each part in the Y-direction did not change significantly, but all increased along with the structure height. In particular, the maximum acceleration response of the top of the cave increased by 57.68% compared to the vault, and this gap gradually decreased with the increase of PGA. When the seismic loading reached 0.44 g, the internal wall of the side cave at section A-A was larger than those at section B-B, indicating that the influence of the back wall in the Y-direction was smaller than in the X-direction. The difference between the amplification coefficients of the cave top and the vault was large, and the acceleration coefficient of the cave top gradually decreased with the increase of the PGA. This was the result of the decrease of the structural lateral stiffness (Y direction) caused by damage accumulation.
(2) Displacement response
Take the maximum value of the displacement response of the specimen under different loading conditions for analysis, and the displacement curve envelope is shown in Fig. 10. Overall, the displacement response of the SMLC specimen increased with the increase of the peak ground acceleration of the seismic input. The displacement response below the vault of the specimen increased with the height of the structure, and displacement response of the cave top was smaller than at the vault. When the peak ground acceleration of the specimen was larger (PGA ≥ 0.60 g), the displacement response of the vault was less than the cave top. The specimen was attained into the plastic state at the PGA = 0.60 g, and the crack width was increased, resulting in a redistribution of the stiffness of the specimen and a sudden increase in displacement response of the cave top.
Through investigation, it was found that SMLCs often produced roof fall due to large vertical displacement at the vault, so the displacement response law at the Z-direction of the vault of side and middle cave under each PGA were analyzed. The Z-direction displacement of the vault of the side cave and the middle cave was compared, as shown in Fig. 11. The vertical displacement at the vault of the side and middle caves increased gently before seismic input of PGA = 0.6g, and the difference between the side cave and the middle cave was minor, indicating that there was no visible damage to the vault before PGA = 0.6 g. The displacement response of the vault at the Z-direction suddenly increased when PGA = 0.8 g, and this moment, the vault had failed, and the roof occurred collapse phenomenon. Also, the middle cave was more severe than the side cave.
3.4 Hysteretic Energy Dissipation
Due to the large seismic response at X-direction under the earthquake action, the X-direction was also the primary energy dissipation direction of the independent stone cave. Therefore, the energy dissipation at X-direction of the specimen under different peak ground accelerations was analyzed. From Fig. 12, as the PGA increasing, the energy consumption of the stone cave structure also gradually increased. When the input peak ground acceleration (El Centro) was 0.14 g, 0.20 g, 0.44 g, the relation curve between the displacement and shear force at the cave top were linearly distributed, and the stone cave specimen was in the elastic stage. After PGA = 0.60 g, the stone cave structure produced some irregular shape, and the energy consumption of the structure increased significantly.
The area enclosed by the load-displacement hysteresis curve of the structure represents the energy consumed by the stone cave structure. Used the approximate algorithm obtained the energy consumption of the specimen structure, that is, used the number of sampling points approximated the curve as a straight line within a specific time, and calculated the area, and get the energy consumption. The cumulative energy consumption of the whole structure is calculated as follows,
(9)
where Ejk(ti) is the cumulative energy consumption at the corresponding time ti under the j-th loading condition; V is the shear force; x is the displacement; m is the total number of samples.
Taking the El Centro wave as an example, the cumulative energy consumption curve of the SMLC under the action of different peak ground accelerations was calculated and plotted, as shown in Fig. 13. With the gradual increase of the peak ground acceleration of the seismic input, the energy dissipation of the structure gradually increased. Because the structural damage gradually intensified and the damage gradually accumulated, so that the hysteretic energy dissipation curve of the structure gradually increased with time and exhibited a step-like rise. Under the fortification earthquake (PGA = 0.2 g), the energy dissipation of the stone cave structure was mainly elastic deformation, especially after PGA ≥ 0.60 g, the energy dissipation of the structure was primarily plastic deformation, and the energy dissipation of the structure due to the accumulation of damage sharply increased in a short time.