2.

3 MASONRY BUILDING SYSTEMS

The masonry elements considered before can be combined into masonry building systems
that can be conveniently classified as loadbearing single or multistory buildings and hybrid
buildings.

2.3.1 Single-Story Loadbearing Buildings

Single-story buildings make up the majority of loadbearing masonry construction. Typical

examples are warehouses, industrial buildings, gymnasiums, banks, and commercial
stores. Single family detached housing also employs single-story loadbearing walls. In
these applications, loadbearing masonry walls are the exterior envelope walls. Figure 2.12
illustrates the main features of a one-story masonry building.

Thin walls are used for economic reasons and, since unreinforced free-standing thin walls
have negligible stability, they must be laterally supported in some way. Stability is
achieved by using end walls, intermediate cross walls, supports along the top edge of the
wall, or a combination of these. A lateral support along the top edge of the wall is usually
provided by the roof or ceiling system. In domestic construction, a plaster ceiling is
sufficiently strong in its own plane to give support to the outside wall by spanning
between cross walls. In commercial or industrial buildings, a braced ceiling or flat roof
provides a strong enough diaphragm to span between end walls of the building. The
structural action of these buildings when resisting lateral wind loads is illustrated in Fig.
2.12.

Wind pressures (or suctions) acting on the exterior walls are transferred by them to
supports provided by the floor, roof, end walls, and cross walls. The portion of load
transferred to the roof level is in turn transferred by the roof or ceiling system, acting as a
stiff diaphragm in its own plane, to the cross walls and end walls. The components of load
distributed to the end walls and cross walls are then transmitted through these walls, by
shearing action to the foundation.
Wall A (Fig. 2.12) is likely to be a critical element in resisting wind pressure because it is
only supported along the top and bottom. With lightweight roof construction and reduced
weight of thin walls, out-of-plane vertical bending in tall walls may produce tensile
stresses that require the wall to be reinforced. Axial compressive loads and horizontal
shear are usually small in single-story buildings and can easily be resisted even though thin
walls are used.

2.3.2 Multistory Loadbearing Buildings

Many conventional low-rise and high-rise masonry buildings were designed and built
utilizing self-weight to counteract tensile stresses from lateral loads. The tallest was the
Monadnock building erected in Chicago from 1889 to 1891. This 16-storys building had an
internal pin-jointed iron frame (unbraced) and exterior walls of solid loadbearing masonry.
It was noted for the simplicity of its architectural elevational treatment. However, the
walls were nearly 6 ft (1.8 m) thick at the foundation, occupied valuable floor space,
imposed a heavy load on the foundations, and by 1940 had settled 20 in. (500 mm) into
the soft clay. This was the last high-rise loadbearing masonry building constructed in
Chicago for many decades. Steel-framed buildings, which had been introduced a few years
earlier, and later concrete frames took over as the structural element of multistory
buildings. The masonry cladding, now supported by the frame acted as a weather barrier
and provided the aesthetic effect. Frames were designed to be structurally sufficient by
themselves.

It was not generally recognized until the 1930s that infill brickwork within the steel frame
acted as shear panels resisting the lateral distortion of the frame in its own plane. Twenty
years later, it was realized that masonry cross walls in a multistory building would act as
shear walls whether or not a steel frame was present. Thus, in the 1960s, many multistory
loadbearing buildings were constructed in several countries using masonry shear walls
instead of concrete or steel frames to achieve stability. In this construction, masonry walls
support a concrete floor, which in turn supports the next story of masonry walls placed
directly above those below. The concrete floor slabs act as rigid diaphragms to distribute
the lateral load to the shear walls, which in turn transmit them to the foundation. A
schematic of a multistory shear wall system and the functions of key elements are shown
in Fig. 2. 13. The integration of walls and floors to act as a system that resists lateral loads
relies upon the adequacy of the connections.

The overturning effect of wind on a traditional, loadbearing, multistory masonry building

is resisted by the walls facing the wind. Contemporary loadbearing masonry construction
resists overturning by walls placed parallel to the wind load direction. In the former case,
the thickness of the wall is the critical factor, whereas in the latter case, the length of the
wall is the critical factor, as illustrated by the simplified comparison in Figs. 2. 14 (a) and
(b). For the latter case, large window areas are possible in external walls, thus overcoming
one of the disadvantages of traditional construction.

Stability must be provided against wind or earthquake from all directions. This is usually
attained by using a system of internal shear walls in both longitudinal and transverse
directions as illustrated in Fig. 2. 13. Because of their increased structural efficiency,
modern loadbearing buildings have thinner walls than traditional buildings. For example,
the 21-story twin Liberty Park East Towers in Pittsburgh (Fig. 2. 15) have walls 15 in. (380
mm) thick.
2.3.3 Hybrid Buildings

Masonry can be used with other materials to from a hybrid composite building system.
Loadbearing masonry shear walls have been utilized in steel framing systems as service
cores and stairways as well as to carry lateral shear loads. Another example is infill frame
buildings where masonry infill walls provide stiffness to control building drift. Great care is
necessary in detailing and construction to allow for the long-term differential movements
of the masonry and the framework that can lead to overstressing and failure. Masonry
infill elements should properly designed to carry loads, otherwise they can crack, thereby
greatly reducing their stiffness, and result in increased deformations and stresses in the
framing system. Examples of hybrid building systems with masonry walls are shown in Fig.
2.16.