THE STRUCTURAL BEHAVIOUR OF CONCRETE MASONRY - REINFORCED AND UNREINFORCED

In this paper the behaviour of reinforced and unreinforced masonry is considered. Tests on eccentrically-loaded unreinforced walls and couplet specimens are reported and a simple theoretical approach for solid block masonry is derived. A method of predicting wall strength is presented. Additional tests are described on reinforced masonry sections subjected to lateral loading only and the simple ultimate load theory used for reinforced concrete is shown to give a good indication of the ultimate strength of the sections. The effect of employing different values of the partial factor of safety for strength of the masonry is considered. It is indicated that present design procedures using permissible stresses result in uneconomic design.(a) /TRRL/