STUDY OF RESISTANCE AND SEISMIC VULNERABILITY OF LOW-COST HOUSING STRUCTURED FERROCEMENT.Summary: This thesis aims to contribute to improving the living conditions of those communities that are in neglect and abject poverty. Colombia has a high economic housing deficit in most of its territory. The construction of houses and informal self further degrades the social problem of housing and fails to provide appropriate solutions to dignify the life of human beings. In most cases, the informal low-cost housing lacks quality conditions, it is usually build in marginal areas without adequate access to basic services of water and energy. In addition, and not in a few cases, their construction is done in areas where natural hazards are considerable, particularly those from seismic and geological phenomena. This type of housing, also, in some cases are built without considering regulations earthquake resistant and without adequate technical specifications, making them unsafe and low reliability. All of this is causing a heightened risk because of the seismic vulnerability of these fragile buildings. There are abundant studies or conduct research to seek solutions with indigenous materials of low-cost, sustainable technologies, which provide these dwellings of a good structural performance. Therefore, the increasing demand for low-cost housing and the shortage of supply in this stretch of the construction market to growth of cities with slums. Colombia is one of the countries in Latin America where poverty, population density, proximity to built environments active fault systems, the precariousness of the buildings, often located on high slopes, and in general the emergence of slums , makes clear the need to explore new materials that allow resistant housing decent, safe, economic and sustainable. This investigation is going in this direction but makes a particular emphasis on the evaluation of seismic vulnerability and their resistance to quantify the risk they are exposed to its inhabitants. This investigation is moving in the way to facilitate access to decent housing. This makes a proposal of ferro housing, single-family and low-cost. This proposition is valid not only for Colombia, but also for other regions of the world. The investigation has been designed and developed in three parts. In ferro materials and housing, explores the history of the material, its definition, its potential in the prefabrication, their applications in low-cost housing, and finally characterize their mechanical properties. In Performance seismic ferrocement, describes the materials, components and structures that are used for the construction of housing. Subsequently, it runs a series of tests to assess their seismic behavior and estimate the structural parameters of prefabricated panels. In addition, it conducts a series of tests on walls and modules scale. It analyzes the results and identify the mechanical properties of this type of housing. It is also proposed and is calibrated a mathematical model to simulate the behavior histerético exhibiting this type of housing when cyclical bear burdens. Finally, An approach to the evaluation of seismic vulnerability, it becomes a study of its fragility. This inspected 146 prefabricated wall thin cement-based located in areas where the threat is between seismic in 8 termedia 391 and high. This defined a model housing type and implemented a probabilistic methodology, which takes into account, naturally, uncertainties in the seismic action, the characteristics of the material and the structural parameters of housing.
