BEHAVIOUR OF BRICK MASONRY

UNDER REVERSIBLE SEISMIC LOADING

Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay
Assistant Professor
Department of Architecture, Town and Regional Planning

Kundan Goswami Payel Chatterjee Utpal Mondal

Final Year Students
Department of Civil Engineering

Suman Bala
Graduate Student
Department of Civil Engineering

Dr. Sekhar Chandra Dutta

Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, and,
Director, School of Disaster Mitigation Engineering
Email: scdind2000@yahoo.com

Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur

Howrah – 711 103, West Bengal, India
Mukhopadhyay, Goswami, Chatterjee, Mondal, Bala & Dutta, Behaviour of brick masonry under reversible seismic loading

Abstract

This paper presents an exhaustive survey on the state of the art, classifying them into three broad trend-making
categories. Pointing out the gap in availability of experimental data for evaluation of degrading nature and hysteretic
behaviour of the masonry walls under reversible loading, the paper suggests the need of a detailed experimental study to
be carried out. The detailed discussion on possible stepwise investigation plan and technical details of a horizontal shake
table may help the researchers to carry out further research activities. The analytical expression for lateral strength
derived following the codal guidelines along with variation curves may be helpful in seismic design of such masonry
structures in absence of more precise and accurate results.

Keywords: Brick masonry, reversible seismic loading, lateral strength, shake table.

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Majority of the Indians cannot afford a healthy, safe and long lasting shelter because those built with
conventional materials are beyond their reach. They are forced to opt for traditional non-engineered materials.
Masonry work is one of the major building crafts and one of the oldest. According to the Housing Tables,
Census of India 2001, the predominant building material for 43.7% of the walls of the census houses has been
“Burnt Brick”, whereas for another 32.2% of census houses, it has been “Mud and Unburnt Brick”. These
houses are generally designed considering the vertical load acting on them in the form of dead and live loads,
but the effect of lateral thrusts that is produced during earthquakes are normally ignored. Massive rebuilding
takes place after every other natural calamity. The Central and State Governments are unable to provide
people with enough number of housing units for paucity of funds. Similar problems exist in case of different
Government sponsored Rural Housing Schemes. These socio-economic challenges validate the need for
evaluating the performance of the ordinary brick masonry structures under reversible seismic loading in order
to identify their limitations and providing necessary remedial suggestions, for attributing better earthquake
resistant features into them. In this context, the present paper is an effort to examine the existing literature in
this field to arrive at a systematic understanding and to propose a detailed research programme to achieve the
improved seismic performance of such buildings.

1.1 Brick Masonry: Present State of the art

The Bureau of Indian Standards in its IS 2212: 1991 named ‘Brick Works – Codes of Practice (First
Revision)’ has defined bonding as arrangement of the bricks in successive courses tied in the brickwork
together both longitudinally and transversely, the arrangement is usually designed to ensure that no vertical
joint of one course is exactly over the one in the next course, above or below it, and there is the greatest
possible amount of lap. The number of studies made on the lateral cyclic behaviour of masonry wall can
broadly be divided into three facets, namely the computational / analytical studies, experimental studies and
studies aiming at the development of improved lateral strength and lesser degradation under cyclic loading.
The salient features of the available literature are discussed below under three such broad headings.

Analytical / Computational Studies: A large number of analytical studies have been conducted in
relation with the seismic behaviour of masonry structures. In this respect, it has been explored that non-linear
static approach suitably forecasts the capacity of a building against seismic demand (Lang & Bachmann,
2003). In another study Abrams, 2002 further reveals the behaviour of the walls in bed joint sliding, toe
compression and diagonal tension to be well within the acceptable performance limits. Research has also been
directed towards the behaviour of the components of a masonry wall using damage model (Gambarotta &
Lagomarsino, 1997), which has thrown light on performance of joints under cyclic loadings. Further a
Mukhopadhyay, Goswami, Chatterjee, Mondal, Bala & Dutta, Behaviour of brick masonry under reversible seismic loading

continuum approach has been used to evaluate the lateral response of in-plane loaded brick masonry. Finite
element approach has been used to investigate the influence of wall geometry on the lateral stiffness
degradation and the hysteretic energy dissipation of masonry walls under cyclic loadings.

Experimental Studies: Along with analytical developments, major contributions from experimental
fields are also notable. In relation with the in-plane seismic behaviour of brick masonry walls, a recent study
(Magenes & Calvi, 1998) is able to provide some idea about the deformability and energy dissipation capacity
due to hysteretic behaviour of masonry walls under cyclic loading. The literature shows how ultimate drift
seems to be a parameter with high regularity for walls failing in shear. A quasi-static test on an unreinforced
masonry building conducted by Yi, 2004, revealed global behavioural phenomena, including flange effects
and overturning. Many experiments were also conducted to assess the efficiency of the various strengthening
techniques employed (Benedetti et al., 1998).

Improve Behaviour Through Reinforcement or Confinements: Extensive researches are being

conducted to investigate the possibility of use of various composite materials for strengthening purpose.
Different analytical models have been proposed in literature (Triantafillou, 1998) to estimate the shear
capacity of masonry elements strengthened by FRP using truss analogy. Further studies (Marfia & Sacco,
2001) to investigate axial and the bending response of masonry structures under cyclic loading have been
done considering the progressive damage and plasticity of the mortar and brick and the brittle failure of the
FRP reinforcement. Tests have also been conducted using GFRP reinforcements (Turek et al., 2007) which
revealed that the use of vertical GFRP strips alone is able to improve the in-plane performance of URM walls.
GFRP reinforcements also prevent collapse of masonry walls after severe damage and thus significantly
improve the life safety performance of URM walls. A study (Kappos et al., 2002) using planar meshes has
been conducted in both linear and non-linear domain involving finite element (FE) models. Also tests
(Patricia & Carlos) have been conducted to find out different parameters that affect the lateral resistance of
reinforced masonry and to obtain experimental curves for different behaviours of reinforced masonry.

Several studies are made to predict the out-of-plane lateral strength of masonry walls and its
improvement. A literature (Griffith et al., 2004) based on experimental tests indicates that collapse of masonry
walls depends upon the displacement rather than inertia force amplitude. A number of researches (Gilstrap
and Dolan, 1998; Tan and Patoary, 2004) revealed that lateral strength in out of plane bending can be
improved using FRP composites. A study has been done to predict the brittle behaviour of masonry material
and the degradation due to cyclic loadings (Casolo, 2000).

1.3 Objective
Different research papers show that analytical models are proposed to investigate the influence of wall
geometry on degradation of lateral stiffness of masonry walls but they are not compared with experimental
results, perhaps due to paucity of the same. The literature surveys also indicate that though flange effects are
included in experimental studies, no analytical expressions are proposed for it. In order to improve the
behaviour of masonry walls subjected to seismic loading, researchers have mainly used Fibre Reinforced
Polymers (FRP) and Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymers (GFRP). In this context, the present study proposes to
conduct a detailed stepwise research programme with following chronological stages as depicted below —
(a) to experimentally find out the variation of lateral strength of masonry walls with non-dimensional
parameters, material parameters and various possible types of bonding with the help of model walls tested
on a shake table under reversible seismic loading;

3
Mukhopadhyay, Goswami, Chatterjee, Mondal, Bala & Dutta, Behaviour of brick masonry under reversible seismic loading

(b) to find out analytical expressions for predicting lateral strengths of different joints and to compare the
analytical values with experimental data obtained from a systematically planned experimental
investigation with the help of horizontal shake table;
(c) to assess the efficiency of confinements such as steel-wire nets in improving the lateral strength of
masonry walls under seismic loading, through similar experimental study; and,
(d) to study the behaviour of masonry walls in out of plane bending using steel confinements, in similar
fashions.

Such investigation may be carried out under simulated acceleration-time histories picked up from the
available well known earthquake data.

2.0 LATERAL STRENGTH OF BRICK MASONRY

Under this section an approach has been made to find out an analytical expression to predict the in-
plane lateral strength of masonry walls using the basic concepts of engineering mechanics and codal
provisions (IS13828: 1993 named ‘Improving earthquake resistance of low strength masonry buildings –
guidelines’, and, IS: 1905-1987 named ‘Code of practice for structural use of unreinforced masonry’). Figure
1 explains the distribution of inertia force and the consideration made in deriving lateral strength of brick
masonry.

where,
VH L VH L = length of the
brick masonry,
H = height of the
F brick masonry,
h h t = thickness of the
H X brick masonry,
H VH = lateral load
at height H,
Vh Vh = lateral load
Vh at a depth h from
the top of the
brick masonry.

Figure 1: Schematic diagram explaining the nature of seismic lateral loading on a brick masonry wall to
be shaken in shake table

Vh= [VH (H-h)) H]

Total resultant lateral force (F) = 0.5(VH + Vh)h
= VHh (2H-h)/ (2H)………………………………………………………………….(1)

Let the resultant F acts at a distance x from the plane of consideration.

x = (h/3)  [(Vh+2VH)/ (Vh+VH)]
= (h/3)  [(3H-h)/ (2H-h)] [Putting the value of Vh = VH (H-h)/H]
…………………………………………………………………………………..(2)

Moment at the plane of consideration (M) = Fx = VHh2 (3H-h)/6H

Stresses due to self-weight and moment ()
= h  [VHh2 (3H-h)/6H]  (L/2)  [tL3/12](-1)

4
Mukhopadhyay, Goswami, Chatterjee, Mondal, Bala & Dutta, Behaviour of brick masonry under reversible seismic loading

= h  [VHh2 (3H-h)/HtL2]

As per § 8.1.6 of IS 13828:1993, tensile strength of free standing walls should be neglected when
checked against overturning. Hence, at extreme point no tensile stress should be generated. Therefore
considering tensile stress = 0, it may be simplified as follows:

h  [{VHh2 (3H-h)}/(HtL2)] = 0

or, (VH / t2 ) = (H/h)  (L/t)2 [t/(3H-h)].

When h =H,
(VH / t2 ) = (L/t) 2 [t / (2H)]
or, (VH / t2 ) = (L/t) 2  (1/2)  [1/ (H/t)] …………………………………………………………..(3)

If VB be the base shear, then VB = 0.5 VHH ………………………………………………………………. (4)

Using equations (3) and (4), (VB /t3) = (0.5 L/t)2 ………………………………………………………….(5)

From different tables of IS 1905:1987, it has been found that the lowest value of slenderness ratio for
brick walls is 6. Thus, (L/t) ≥ 6 and (H/t) ≥ 6. Again, as per § 8.2.3 of IS 13828:1993, t ≥ (L/16) i.e. (L/t) ≤ 16.
Generally free standing walls of 125mm thickness does not exceed a height of 1.5m, and hence it can be
concluded that (H/t) ≤ 12.

Variation of non-dimensional strength (VB/t3) with (L/t) is plotted in Figure 2. It clearly shows that
the strength very sharply increases due to increase in length L which is intuitive.
70

60
50
40
V B /γt3

30

20
10
0
0 5 10 15 20
(L/t)
Figure 2: Variation of strength as a function of length

Further the lateral force ordinate keeps on increasing along the height of a brick wall. The highest
lateral force ordinate (VH) occurring at the wall top will primarily be a function of (L/t) and (H/t), dominance
of (L/t) being more. Figure 3 presents a set of variation curves for VH in a dimensionless form with (L/t) for
various (H/t).

5
Mukhopadhyay, Goswami, Chatterjee, Mondal, Bala & Dutta, Behaviour of brick masonry under reversible seismic loading

25

20

h/t=6
15 h/t=7
h/t=8
(VH/γt3)

h/t=9
h/t=10
10
h/t=11
h/t=12

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18

(L/t)

Figure 3: Variation of VH with L/t and H/t

Figure 3 shows that the intensity of loading may vary sharply with increase in length of the wall while
decreases with increase in height of the same. Such characteristics may always be used as background
information while framing up the experimental programme.

3.0 PROGRAMME FOR EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

3.1 Methodology
The experimental studies are planned to be carried out in two phases which are as follows —
(a) In order to achieve the first two objectives of evaluating the performance of various brick masonry
walls and junctions under different seismic loads, the following action plan and methodology is
proposed :
 to put different combinations of brick masonry junctions, viz. ‘L’ junctions, ‘T’ junctions,
45°angled junctions, and isolated wall without any junctions etc., to lateral thrusts on a Single
Axis Horizontal Shake Table for failure;
 to repeat the above tests for different popular brick bondings, viz. English Bond, Flemish Bond
etc., to see whether there is any significant change in the result due to change in bonding
geometry;
 to observe the nature of failure of the masonry to identify the zones of weaknesses.

6
Mukhopadhyay, Goswami, Chatterjee, Mondal, Bala & Dutta, Behaviour of brick masonry under reversible seismic loading

(b) In order to achieve the third objective of suggesting technical guidelines for overcoming the
weaknesses identified while establishing the first objective, the following action plan and
methodology is proposed:
 to put jacket of tensile reinforcement all around each of the above situations and to evaluate the
extent of enhancement of performance;
 to put reinforcements like chicken mesh etc. within layers of each of the above situations and to
evaluate the extent of enhancement of performance;
 to put tensile reinforcements at the places of failure observed during the establishment of the first
objective and to evaluate the extent of enhancement of performance.

3.2 Brief detail of the shake table

To study the effect of earthquake, prime and most important challenge is simulation of earthquake
pulses. The system used for this purpose is called a Seismic Vibration Shaker which generates real time to and
fro motion following any given earthquake time history on a Table. The model or actual structure under test is

4 (a): Empty horizontal shake table

4 (b): Masonry wall is being constructed on horizontal shake table with a no slip base
condition
Figure 4: Diagram of shake table and masonry wall for testing

7
Mukhopadhyay, Goswami, Chatterjee, Mondal, Bala & Dutta, Behaviour of brick masonry under reversible seismic loading

placed on the table for being shaken along with table. Dynamic response of the structure is then studied and
thus one can analyze the effect of various parameters and design aspects. Here a 1.5m x 1.5m Single Axis
Horizontal Shake Table with payload of approximately 7 tonne, capable of producing around 1.5g of PGA
will be used for testing the seismic performance of masonry brick walls.

To ensure no slippage at the base, following steps are being followed while constructing specimen wall on
shake table:
1. On the top of the horizontal shake table, a wooden plank (Dimension: 61” x 47”, 1.4” thick) is bolted with
four high tensile bolts of 10mm diameter. This is done to keep the wooden plank fixed with the shake
table so that it acts as a base, as concrete does not grip directly with the metal.
2. The centre line of the shake table is marked with nails and strings. Then centering is done so that the
centre of the wooden plank coincides with the centre of the shake table.
3. The formwork is then made with the help of bricks. Nails are inserted at intervals of 3” in both directions
on the wooden plank to ensure good gripping between the layer of P.C.C, that will be cast and wood.
4. On both sides of the centre line of the wooden board, at the same distance along the axis of vibration of
the shake table a P.C.C. layer is cast of 3” thickness, length 1m and width 13”.
5. On this bed of P.C.C., brick walls of 3” and 5” thickness are laid.
6. It should be noted that at least one layer of brick is to be laid before the initial setting of concrete so as to
ensure good bonding between masonry and P.C.C.

The study of the exhibited experimental behaviour of the masonry walls under stipulated acceleration-
time history may lead to a better understanding of:
(a) the behaviour of brick walls for in-plane bending, and,
(b) the effectiveness of 5” wall over 3” wall, if exists, both in terms of strength and stiffness.

4.0 CONCLUSIVE REMARKS

The present paper as a whole is an effort to gauge the trends observed in the state-of-the-art on
seismic behaviour of masonry walls. In this context a detailed research programme, backed up by analytical
formulation proposed by the relevant codes, is put forward. Such information may be helpful in better
understanding the seismic lateral behaviour of brick walls and improving the performance of the same during
earthquakes. The valuable information extracted from the experimental study will be reported in future as and
when completed.

References

Abrams D.P., Performance-based engineering concepts for unreinforced masonry building structures. Structural Control
and Health Monitoring 2002, 4(3):301-309.

Benedetti D., Carydis P. and Pezzoli P., Shaking table tests on 24 simple masonry buildings. Earthquake Engineering &
Structural Dynamics 1998, 27(1):67-90.

Casolo S., Modelling the out-of-plane seismic behaviour of masonry walls by rigid elements. Earthquake engineering &
structural dynamics 2000, 29(12):1797-1813.

Gambarotta L and Lagomarsino S., Damage models for the seismic response of brick masonry shear walls. Part I: The
mortar joint model and its applications. Earthquake engineering & structural dynamics 1997, 26(4):423-439.

8
Mukhopadhyay, Goswami, Chatterjee, Mondal, Bala & Dutta, Behaviour of brick masonry under reversible seismic loading

Gambarotta L. and Lagomarsino S., Damage models for the seismic response of brick masonry shear walls. Part II: The
mortar joint model and its applications. Earthquake engineering & structural dynamics, 1997, 26(4):441-462.

Gilstrap J.M. and Dolan C.W., Out-of-plane bending of FRP-reinforced masonry walls, Composites science and
technology, 1998, 58(8):1277-1284.

Griffith M.C., Lam Nelson T.K., Wilson J.L. and Doherty K., Experimental Investigation of Unreinforced Brick
Masonry Walls in Flexure, J. Struct. Engrg., 2004, 130(3):423-432

Kappos A.J., Penelis G.G. and Drakopoulos C.G., Evaluation of Simplified Models for Lateral Load Analysis of
Unreinforced Masonry Buildings, J. Struct. Engrg., 2002, 128(7):890-897.

Lang K. and Bachmann H., On the seismic vulnerability of existing unreinforced masonry buildings, Journal of
Earthquake Engineering, 2003, 7(3):407-426.

Magenes G. and Calvi Gian M., In-plane seismic response of brick masonry walls, Earthquake Engineering & Structural
Dynamics, 1998, 26(11):1091-1112.

Marfia S. and Sacco E., Modeling of reinforced masonry elements. International Journal of Solids and Structures, 2001,
38(24-25):4177-4198.

Patricia G. and Carlos Zavala T., The current state-of-the-art of masonry and adobe buildings in Peru.

Tan K.H. and Patoary M.K.H., Strengthening of Masonry Walls against Out-of-Plane Loads Using Fibre-Reinforced
Polymer Reinforcement, J. Compos. for Constr., 2004, 8(1):79-87.

Triantafillou T.C., Composites: a new possibility for the shear strengthening of concrete, masonry and wood, Composites
science and technology, 1998, 58(8):1285-1295.

Turek M., Ventura C.E. and Kuan S., In-Plane Shake-Table Testing of GFRP-Strengthened Concrete Masonry Walls,
Earthquake Spectra, 2007, 23(1):223-237.

Yi, Experimental Investigation and Numerical Simulation of an Unreinforced Masonry Structure with Flexible
Diaphragms, Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2004.