Performance of confined masonry of 1953 during the 2014 Cephalonia earthquake

Cephalonia Island is the region of highest seismicity in Greece. The entire building stock of the island consisting primarily of traditional unreinforced masonry was devastated in 1953 after three strong earthquakes. To house the displaced population of the island the authorities commissioned the development of a system close to what is now known as confined masonry for building new residential dwellings. Several variances to a basic theme were offered with detailed construction plans as alternative options for the reconstruction. In 2014 these buildings sustained with negligible damage two strong ground motions with excessively high ground accelerations that were twice the design value. To better understand and illustrate these practices, the response of these buildings is examined by FEM linear analysis with an emphasis of the effectiveness of these good practices in mitigating the tendencies for localization of deformation demands, which is considered the primary indicator of seismic vulnerability.