Shear Behaviour of Historic Masonry Made of Clay Bricks

Abstract

Historic masonry walls have demonstrated high vulnerability and low shear capacity when exposed to seismic actions. The behaviour of historic un-reinforced masonry (HURM) walls under combined compression and shear loading plays a fundamental role in the seismic verification of masonry buildings. Experimental investigations on historic masonry were carried out by the author on shear walls and triplets built with full clay bricks in scale 1:3rd to establish the shear behaviour of HURM walls. On the basis of experimental research, a shear criterion for HURM has been assumed. It appears that the shear strength of masonry increases with the pre-compression up to a limit and becomes constant at higher pre-compression. Finally, the experimental load-deflection relationship and cracking distribution along the surface of the shear walls have been compared with the theoretical results obtained by a non linear FE analysis of HURM walls and a good co-relation was found between them.