High, sustained loads in masonry cause time-dependent deformations, which can lead to failure of the construction. This phenomenon mostly occurs in high constructions, such as historical towers, where the dead load imposes significant stresses on the base of the tower [4]. As knowledge and experimental data are lacking to describe this time-dependent behavior in historical masonry, a research p...

A common decay scenario in old and new buildings was simulated: the effects on masonry structures of salt efflorescence or subefflorescence produced by the rise of saline solution. Eight different types of masonry wall each made up of a combination of different construction materials (brick, calcarenite and four types of mortar were combined as follows: pure lime mortar, mortar + air entraining...

Water content affects mortar properties and the quality of the resultant masonry, however, it is often subjectively determined by the mason by assessing workability. This lack of explicit methodology and data, can lead to lack of mortar consistency and field performance, adversely affecting full uptake of lime mortars into mainstream technology. The aim of this research is to assist develop con...

Work in masonry is divided in different tasks and performed by sub-contractors. Sub-contractors specialize in a given skill to accomplish a specific construction task and usually work with crews. Due to this specialization, multiple crews with different skills are present on the jobsite at any one time and the sub-contractor is responsible of configuring crews to produce good quality work by me...

ABSTRACT This paper presents a non-linear finite element material model for the analysis of the mechanical behavior of multi-leaf masonry, which is quite frequently used in ancient stone masonry buildings. A damage model, previously developed by some of the authors for brittle materials (namely, concrete) was adapted to fit the experimental stress−strain behavior of stone masonry. To this end, ...

Masonry infill has been widely used as building material due to its cost effectiveness and availability.  The failure of these masonry infill walls during the past earthquakes have underscored the importance of ensuring the safety of the infill walls when it is subjected to lateral loads. In-plane and out of plane failures have been observed in many reinforced concrete framed building with maso...

The equivalent periodic eigenstrain method is used to evaluate the effective elastic stiffness of periodic masonry structure. An Eshelby tensor, for a unit cell of the periodic masonry structure, is derived analytically, and is combined with a strain energy approach to formulate the effective stiffness of the masonry. The new homogenization scheme is simple, one step, and closed form. The model...

Abstract: Masonry infill is considered as a non-structural element in all type of buildings where masonry use. But, masonry infill walls are mainly used to increase initial stiffness and strength of reinforced concrete (RC) frame buildings. This Open First storey is also termed as “Soft Storey”. The upper storeys have brick infilled wall panels with various opening percentage in it. In many cit...

The purpose of this study is to explore three numerical approaches to the elastic homogenization of disordered masonry structures with moderate meso/macrolengthscale ratio. The methods investigated include a representative of perturbation methods, the Karhunen-Loève expansion technique coupled with Monte-Carlo simulations and a solver based on the Hashin-Shtrikman variational principles. In all...

Among the different non-destructive tests used to carry out an exhaustive survey about the mechanical and durability characteristics of a masonry made of solid tile-bricks, the ultrasonic method has experienced a wide diffusion thanks to its low costs and to its easiness of use; the method essentially consists in detecting the propagation velocity of ultrasonic pulses propagating through a soli...