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IITK-BMTPC Earthquake Tip 14

Why are Horizontal Bands necessary in Masonry Buildings? page 2
Design of Lintel Bands
During earthquake shaking, the lintel band Wood Spacers
undergoes bending and pulling actions (Figure 3). To
resist these actions, the construction of lintel band Wood
requires special attention. Bands can be made of wood Runners
(including bamboo splits) or of reinforced concrete A
(RC) (Figure 4); the RC bands are the best. The straight B
lengths of the band must be properly connected at the
wall corners. This will allow the band to support walls
loaded in their weak direction by walls loaded in their (a) Wooden Band
strong direction. Small lengths of wood spacers (in
wooden bands) or steel links (in RC bands) are used to
make the straight lengths of wood runners or steel
bars act together. In wooden bands, proper nailing of Steel
straight lengths with spacers is important. Likewise, in Links
RC bands, adequate anchoring of steel links with steel A
bars is necessary. Steel Bars B

Correct
Bending of Pulling of Practices
Lintel Band Lintel Band
Lintel
Band

Direction of
Inertia Force

Incorrect

Practice (b) RC Band

Figure 4: Horizontal Bands in masonry buildings
– RC bands are the best.

Direction of
earthquake Related Earthquake Tip
shaking
Tip 5: What are the seismic effects on structures?
Tip12: How brick masonry houses behave during earthquakes?
Tip13: Why masonry buildings should have simple structural
configuration?
150
75 mm mm Reading Material
IAEE, (1986), Guidelines for Earthquake Resistant Non-Engineered
Construction,
International
for
Earthquake
Association
Engineering, Tokyo, available on www.nicee.org
IS 4326, (1993), Indian Standard Code of Practice for Earthquake Resistant
Small Large Design and Construction of Buildings, Bureau of Indian Standards,
New Delhi
IS 13828, (1993), Indian Standard Guidelines for Improving Earthquake
Cross-section of Resistance of Low-strength Masonry Buildings, Bureau of Indian
Lintel Bands Standards, New Delhi

Figure 3: Bending and pulling in lintel bands –
Bands must be capable of resisting these. Authored by:
C.V.R.Murty
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Indian Standards Kanpur, India
The Indian Standards IS:4326-1993 and IS:13828 Sponsored by:
(1993) provide sizes and details of the bands. When Building Materials and Technology Promotion
wooden bands are used, the cross-section of runners is Council, New Delhi, India
to be at least 75mm×38mm and of spacers at least
50mm×30mm. When RC bands are used, the minimum This release is a property of IIT Kanpur and BMTPC New
thickness is 75mm, and at least two bars of 8mm Delhi. It may be reproduced without changing its contents
diameter are required, tied across with steel links of at and with due acknowledgement. Suggestions/comments
may be sent to: nicee@iitk.ac.in. Visit www.nicee.org or
least 6mm diameter at a spacing of 150 mm centers. www.bmtpc.org, to see previous IITK-BMTPC Earthquake Tips.

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