Eccentrically loaded brickwork: Theoretical and experimental results

Study of the compressive response of masonry using non-conventional joint materials

“…In this line, Maurenbrecher (1985) obtained E/f c ratios between 600 and 800, Brencich (Brencich, Corradi and Gambarotta, 2008;Brencich and de Felice, 2009;Brencich and Gambarotta, 2005) sets this range between 120 and 300 and Bernat et al (2013) presented evidences which reduced the E/f c ratio down to 40-70. The disagreement between published results and the significant scattering of the corresponding evidences has encouraged researchers to perform additional tests to characterise basic parameters of masonry. In this line, one of the first works was the study carried out by Maurenbrecher (1983Maurenbrecher ( , 1980 who investigated the influence of several variables (geometry, curing time, contact area in the joints, type of joints and handwork) on the compressive response of masonry.…”

“…All samples were piles of five bricks. This geometric configuration has been used by other researchers (Brencich, Corradi and Gambarotta, 2008;Brencich et al, 2002) because these specimens are little less than the ones usually proposed in codes (Committee AEN/CTN 41, 1999). Thus, choosing the five-piled bricks geometric definition is justified in order to easy the test procedure and this selection is also supported by bibliographic references.…”

“…This formulation is based on the mixture theory and uses the elasticity principles. In this same line, Brencich, Corradi and Gambarotta (2008) proposed a formulation to calculate the compressive strength of unbounded masonry. This was based on the assumptions of limit analysis and related the compressive and tensile strength of mortar and bricks with the compressive strength of masonry, including the influence of the component's thickness.…”

“…The influence of the mechanical properties and the geometry of the component layers has been deeply analysed by Brencich, Corradi and Gambarotta (2008;Brencich et al, 2002), who performed experimental researches, analytical studies and numerical simulations of the compressive response of masonry. These researches used a previously presented formulation, by Francis, Horman and Jerrems (1971), to calculate the Young's modulus of masonry from the Young's modulus of the components, their Poisson's coefficient and the thickness of the brick and mortar layers.…”

Analysis of brick masonry walls strengthened with fibre reinforced polymers and subjected to eccentric compressive loads

“…The flexural strength of the masonry, f x , have been experimentally obtained performing bond wrench tests that followed the procedure described in [33]. The compressive strength, f m , and Young's modulus, E m0 , of the masonry for the control cases have been experimentally obtained by testing piles of 5 bricks as described in [33], with a similar approach of that presented in [34] by Brencich et al In contrast, the design compressive strength associated with the eccentric loading configuration characteristic of the considered FRP-strengthened cases has been calculated on the basis of the work by Brencich et al [35], who suggested that the eccentric compressive strength (21.3 MPa) might be calculated from the concentric compressive strength (18.1 MPa) using the analytical expression presented in equation 15 of [35]. The concentric compressive strength was experimentally determined by testing piles of 5 bricks and 4 joints in a uniform compression test like the ones presented in [33].…”