This paper investigates the behavior of confined masonry walls subjected to lateral loads. Six full-scale wall assembles, consisting of a clay masonry panel, two confining columns and a tie beam, were tested under a combination of vertical load and monotonic pushover up to failure. Wall panels had various configurations, namely, solid and perforated walls with window and door openings, variable longitudinal and transverse reinforcement ratios for the confining elements and different brick types, namely, cored clay and solid concrete masonry units. Key experimental results showed that the walls in general experienced a shear failure at the end of the lightly reinforced confining elements after the failure of the diagonal struts formed in the brick wall due to transversal diagonal tension. Stepped bed joint cracks formed in the masonry panel either diagonally or around the perforations. A numerical model was built using the finite element method and was validated in light of the experimental results. The model showed acceptable correlation and was used to conduct a thorough parametric study on various design configurations. The conducted parametric study involved the assessment of the load/displacement response for walls with different aspect ratios, axial load ratios, number of confining elements as well as the size and orientation of perforations. It was found that the strength of the bricks and the number of confining elements play a significant role in increasing the walls' ultimate resistance and displacement ductility. ª 2014 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Housing and Building National Research Center.

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This paper presents the findings of shaking-table experiments conducted to examine the seismic performance of a full-scale, one-story, wood-framed structure with masonry veneer. The structure was designed and constructed in accordance with current U.S. code provisions. The veneer was attached to the wood backing with two kinds of metal anchors, corrugated ties fastened with 8d nails and rigid ties fastened with #8 screws. The tests have shown that the use of nails to fasten veneer anchors to the wood studs is highly unreliable due to the high variation of the nail extraction capacity, which can be influenced by the moisture content of the wood. Other than this, both the wood frame and the masonry veneer performed well under severe ground motions far exceeding a design level earthquake for Seismic Design Category D. Good performance was observed for the rigid veneer ties, which were attached to the wood studs with screws. The results have shown that the veneer walls parallel to the direction of shaking helped to restrain the motion of the wood structure and therefore should not be simply treated as added mass. The detailing of wood roof diaphragms requires special attention in consideration of the out-of-plane inertia force of the veneer that can be transmitted through the top plate of the wood-stud wall to the rim joist.

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