The Behavior of Partially Grouted Masonry Walls Subjected to Out of Plane Seismic Type Loads. Laboratory Measurements and Numerical Simulations

Abstract

A number of ungrouted and grouted masonry walls were built at the laboratory of Strength of Materials and Structures of Aristotle University using an innovative clay unit vertically perforated. This vertically perforated clay unit was designed and produced with the proper holes in order to host the required horizontal and vertical reinforcing steel bars. At the same time the remaining holes are filled with expanded polystyrene parts capable to provide sufficient thermal insulation and drastically reduce the energy consumption. The specimens constructed with the thin mortar method using a high strength mortar and employing vertical reinforcing bars of different diameters. The measured behavior is depicted here in terms of horizontal applied load versus the horizontal displacement at mid height. Furthermore, numerical models were developed in order to simulate the observed behaviour of the tested specimens by modeling separately the masonry panels as homogenized material and linear beam elements representing the employed longitudinal (vertical) reinforcement. The numerically simulated behavior resembles the measured load-deformation response of the tested specimens and the observed actual damage at the end of the tests.

Reinforced Masonry Piers Built With a Novel Clay Masonry Units Under Seismic-Type Loads

“…Additionally, two horizontal channels are formed aiming to host the horizontal reinforcing rebars. The final geometry of this brick unit and the configuration of the holes was designed utilizing extensive material testing combined with a series of numerical studies [13][14][15][16][17]. This work summarizes the most fundamental properties of the masonry unit which went though a preliminary design stage (section 3) in order to attain the desired characteristics before being produced industrially.…”

“…This work summarizes the most fundamental properties of the masonry unit which went though a preliminary design stage (section 3) in order to attain the desired characteristics before being produced industrially. Next, these industrially produced masonry units were extensively tested in order to measure the response of masonry wallets constructed using the novel clay unit under diagonal compression [17] and out of plane bending [16]. Due to space limitations these results are not presented here.…”