Ready to Use Guideline for Details of Low Rise Reinforced Concrete Buildings without Masonry Infill from the Nepal Building Code

There has been a proliferation of reinforced concrete (RC) framed buildings constructed in the urban and semi-urban areas of Nepal in the last 35 years. Most of these buildings have relied on little seismic design considerations.

The RUD Guideline presents ready-to-use designs intended for non-professional laborers to use when constructing structural as well as non-structural members.

Brick masonry shall be built by pre-soaking of bricks in water, level bedding of planes fully covered with mortar, vertical joints broken from course to course and their filling with mortar fully. Bricks shall be of a standard rectangular shape, burnt red, and have crushing strength not less than 3.5 N/mm². The higher the density and the strength, the better they will be.

Wall Thickness: A minimum thickness of one half-brick and a maximum thickness of one brick shall be used.
Mortar: Cement-sand mixes of 1:6 and 1:4 shall be adopted for one-brick and half-brick thick walls, respectively. The addition to the mortars of small quantities of freshly hydrated lime in a ratio of ¼ to ½ of the cement will greatly increase plasticity without reducing strength, and thus, is recommended.

High-strength deformed bars: use fy = 415 N/mm²

Shop drawings:
• Slabs: p15-19
• Beam: p20-26
• Columns: p27-30
• Walls: p31-34
• Staircases: p34-37

Source

Curated topics from the April 25, 2015, Nepal Earthquake to help inform reconnaissance activities, identify impacted regions, and help document the timeline of earthquake response/recovery.