ROSE School

COURSE: MASONRY STRUCTURES

March 2013 Instructor: G.Magenes

Homework Assignment #2 Masonry Walls in Bending

Due: Tuesday, 12 March 2013

Investigate the influence of horizontal wall span, vertical edge fixity, and window openings on the bending strength of out-of-plane loaded walls by calculating the bending strength for a set of out-of-plane loaded unreinforced brick masonry walls having the material properties and geometry listed below. You should calculate the wall strength (in units of kPa = kN/m2) using the upper bound Virtual Work Method (using the new expressions for Mch & Mcd) as well as the lower bound Vertical Strip Method. Comment on the differences between the upper and lower bound predictions as well as the wall design parameters (i.e, length between vertical supports, vertical edge restraint, vertical precompression and the presence of openings) that appear to have the most influence on wall strength. Material/Geometric Properties common to all walls: Flexural tensile bond strength, fmt, = 0.20 MPa Flexural tensile strength for the brick units, fut, 2.0 MPa Wall thickness, t, 150mm Two cases of vertical pre-compression load on top of wall to consider for each wall: v = 0 and v = 1.0 MPa Clay brick units having dimensions lu x tu x hu, 300 x 150 x 75mm Mortar laid across full width of brickwork with joint thickness, tj, = 10mm Brickwork laid in half-overlap stretcher bonded masonry Assume the wall is simply-supported along both its top and bottom edges Wall height, H, = 3.5m Material/Geometric Properties specific to each wall: Wall 1: Length, L = 4m and vertical edges are simply-supported Wall 2: Length, L = 4m and vertical edges are fixed (full moment restraint) Wall 3: Length, L = 6m and vertical edges are simply-supported Wall 4: Length, L = 6m and vertical edges are fixed (full moment restraint) Wall 5: Length, L = 8m and vertical edges are simply-supported Wall 6: Length, L = 8m and vertical edges are fixed (full moment restraint) Wall 7: Length, L = 8m with a 1.5 x 1.5m window in centre of wall and simply-supported vertical edges Wall 8: Length, L = 8 m with a 1.5 x 1.5m window in centre of wall and fixed vertical edges