Mechanical properties for Surkhi bonded Kathmandu world heritage buildings

Kathmandu World heritage buildings have suffered heavy damage in past earthquakes both in 2034 and 2015. It has lost millions of rupees earning from tourism. Saving heritage is not just saving a buildings but also saving tradition, values and states income. To ensure importance of those properties, reconstruction, renovation, retrofitting and strengthening of heritage structures require traditional material. It is been a challenging job since less investigation have been done due less priority given in this area and how high level of seismic safety is maintained using those materials is a big question. Thus, in this investigation, tests have been done in order to find out various mechanical properties require for numerical simulation, evaluation of strength and design. Three kinds of test - shear, compression and combined loadings on the wallets made from bricks collected from old buildings. Various test specimen were prepared and tested in the laboratory to find the properties of brick elements and walls made from lime Surkhi mortar bonding such as density, modulus of elasticity, Poisson’s ratio, shear modulus, shear wave velocity, compressive and tensile strengths.