Engineers Training on

Seismic Retrofit design of Masonry Buildings

5-9 August 2019, Kathmandu, Nepal

MASONRY MATERIALS AND

CONSTRUCTION SYSTEMS
Organized By:
National Reconstruction Authority – CLPIU
(Building)
Baliyo Ghar Program (NSET), supported by
USAID

Earthquake Safe Communities in Nepal

 Objectives
At the end of this session, participants will be
able to:

• List the materials used in masonry building

• List and define the construction system of

masonry building

• List the mechanical properties of masonry

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 Masonry materials
Masonry is a composite material composed of:

• Masonry Units

• Mortar

• Reinforcing Steel

• Concrete infill

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 Masonry Units

Types of Masonry units:

• Bricks

• Concrete blocks

• Natural Stone

• Adobe

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 Brick

• Should be well burnt, deep

cherry red color, smooth
surface finish
• Regular and uniform shape
and size
• Minimum compressive strength
- 3.5 N/mm2(NS)
• Hollow bricks with holes are
also available

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 • A brick shall not absorb more water than 15 %
of its weight after 24 hours of soaking in water
at normal temperatures.

• Hand-made bricks with keys may have water

absorption up to 25% of its weight.

• The standard brick size of 240 × 115 x 57 mm

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 Concrete blocks/bricks

• Made of concrete
• Shall be of a regular shape and
preferably free from broken edges,
any type of deformation and cracks
• Normal acceptable mix is 1:5:8
(cement:sand:10 mm down coarse
aggregates)
• Should be cured before use for a
minimum of seven days
• Interlocking blocks and hollow
concrete blocks with holes are also
available
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 Natural stone

• Natural stones like limestone

and slate, etc are used in rural
areas for low cost construction
• Easily breakable soft stones
and stones with fractures shall
not be used
• Only square dressed stone with
parallel edge to be used
• Size shall not be less than
50mm thick and 150mm length
and width
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 Adobe
• Used in rural areas for low cost
construction
• Made of clayey earth consisting 30-
40% clay and remaining earth
• Made by mixing clay and earth with
water, moulded, compacted and
then sun dried
• Straw is added to prevent cracking
• Usual dimension is 300/400/120mm
• It should be free from deformation
and visible cracks

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 Mortar

• Mortar is mixture of inorganic

binders and aggregate and water
• Inorganic binders are mud, lime or
cement
• It shall also free from pebbles and
other hard materials which could
upset the mortar thickness.
• Mortar thickness shall not be more
than 12mm thk.
• Cement-sand mixes of 1:6 and 1:4
shall be adopted for one-brick and
half-brick thick walls, respectively
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 Reinforcing Bars

• High strength deformed bar

used for RC structure can also
be used in reinforced masonry
construction
• Should be free from rust and
scale
• Should comply with
requirement of dimension and
weight
• Should not break while bending

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 Concrete infill

• Concrete infill is used to fill the

holes where reinforcing steel
bars are placed in reinforced
masonry construction
• It is made by mixing cement,
sand, aggregate and water
• Concrete mix not less than 1:2:4
(M15 Grade) shall be used
• Aggregate size shall not exceed
10mm

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 Masonry construction
systems

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 Masonry Building

• It is a box- type structural system

• Composed of vertical members- walls and horizontal
members- floors and roofs
• These members are tied together using connecting
elements
• Generally beams are provided at floor levels to connect
the walls

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 Types of Masonry walls

• Single leaf wall: Without cavity or continuous vertical

joint in its plane

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 Double –leaf wall : consisting of two parallel leaves with
longitudinal joint between them, not exceeding 25 mm, and
solid filled with mortar.

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 • Cavity wall: Two parallel leaves with a cavity between
them (cavity may be partially filled with insulating
material).
• leaf walls, tied together with wall ties or bed joint
reinforcement, supporting vertical loads.

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 • Grouted Cavity wall: Two parallel leaves with a cavity
between them filled with concrete

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 Types of Masonry
construction systems

• Unreinforced masonry

• Confined masonry

• Reinforced masonry

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 Unreinforced Masonry

• Masonry units should be

soaked in water before use
• Masonry units should be
overlapped on alternate
courses so that wall act as a
single structural element
• vertical joints broken from
course to course and filled
fully with mortar.

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 Unreinforced Masonry

• When built in two layers with packing, connecting

stones (through stones) should be provided 1200 mm
in the horizontal direction and 600 mm vertically

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 Confined Masonry
• Masonry walls are confined on all four sides with
reinforced concrete vertical and horizontal confining
elements

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 Confined Masonry

• Masonry walls are built first, and the columns and

beams are poured in afterwards to enclose (confine)
the wall

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 Confined Masonry

• Confining elements are not intended to carry loads and

not designed to perform as moment resisting frames
• Vertical confining elements shall be placed at all
corners and recesses, all joints and intersections of the
building
• Horizontal confining elements shall be placed at top
and bottom of masonry, also at sill and lintel level for
better performance
• Confining elements should have size equal to thickness
of wall, but not less than 150mm

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 Confined Masonry

• Confining masonry shows following results:

o Improvement in connection between walls
o Improvement in stability of slender walls
o Improvement in strength and ductility of masonry
panels
o Reduction in risk of disintegration of masonry panels

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 Reinforced Masonry

• Steel reinforcement in the form of reinforcing bars or

mesh is embedded in the mortar
• Seismic resistance is increased significantly
• Reinforcement should be integrated with masonry so
that all the materials of reinforced masonry system act
monolithically during seismic loading
• Types of reinforced masonry system:
o Reinforced hollow unit masonry
o Reinforced grouted cavity masonry
o Reinforced pocket type walls

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 Reinforced hollow unit
Masonry
• Hollow masonry units with vertical holes are used
• Vertical reinforcement is placed in the hole and filled with
concrete or grout
• The groove containing horizontal steel are filled with grout
or mortar
• The number of hollow blocks to be reinforced depends on
the seismic load

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 Reinforced Grouted
Cavity Masonry
• Consists of two leaves of
masonry unit separated
by a cavity
• Vertical and horizontal
reinforcement are placed
in this cavity and grouted
either with concrete or
grout
• Two leaves of wall are
then tied together with
wall ties or connectors
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 Reinforced Pocket
Type Walls
• Pockets are formed in the wall by special bonding
arrangement
• Vertical reinforcements are placed in the pocket and
filled with concrete or grout
• Horizontal bed joint reinforcement are placed in the
mortar joints at vertical spacing not more than 600mm

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 Masonry Material
Properties

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 Masonry Properties

• Compressive Strength
• Tensile Strength
• Shear Strength
• Density
• Modulus of Elasticity

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 Compressive Strength
Basic Compressive Strength of masonry is determined
by:
• Prism Test Method
Basic compressive strength of masonry can be
obtained by multiplying specified compressive
strength obtained from prism test with 0.25

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 Permissible Compressive
Stress, fc
Reference IS 1905, 5.4.1
fc = fb * ks* ka * kp
Where fb = basic compressive stress

ks = Stress reduction factor

ka = Area reduction factor
kp = Shape modification factor

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 Basic Compressive
Strength, fb

H1 = 1:0.25:3, H2 = 1:0.25:4, M1=1:0:5, M2=1:0:6,

M3=1:0:7, L1=1:0:8, L2=0:1:3
(Cement: lime: sand)
34

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 Stress Reduction Factor,
Ks

It takes into consideration the slenderness ratio of the

element and also the eccentricity of loading. 35

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 Area Reduction Factor,
Ka
It takes into consideration smallness of the sectional
area of the element.
If the cross-sectional area of wall is less than 0.2 m2,
the basic stress is reduced in the ratio of a reduction
factor given by
Ka = 0.7 + 1.5 A
Where A = Cross sectional Area (m2)

36

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 Shape Modification
Factor, Kp

It takes into consideration the shape of the unit, that is,

height to width ratio ( as laid )
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 Permissible Tensile
Stress

IS 1905: 5.4.2
• Design of masonry shall be based on the assumption
that masonry is not capable of taking any tension

• In case of lateral loads normal to the plane of wall,

which causes flexural tensile stress, as for example,
panel, curtain partition and free-standing walls,
following flexural tensile stresses may be permitted in
the design for masonry:
38
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 Permissible Tensile
Stress
• For bending in the vertical direction where tension
developed is normal to bed joints
Grade M1 or better mortar: 0.07 MPa
Grade M2 mortar: 0.05 MPa
• For bending in the longitudinal direction where tension
developed is parallel to bed joints provided crushing
strength of masonry units is not less than 7.5 MPa
Grade M1 or better mortar: 0.14MPa
Grade M2 mortar: 0.10 MPa

39
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 Shear Strength

• Shear strength of unreinforced masonry is largely

dependent on the strength of the mortar used
• An in-place shear test is the preferred method for
determining the strength of existing mortar
• The results of these tests are used to determine the
shear strength of the wall

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 In situ Shear Test

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 Permissible Shear
Strength
Reference IS 1905, Code & Commentary; 5.9.1.1
In-plane permissible shear stress (Fv )shall not exceed
any of :
a) 0.5 MPa
b) 0.1+ 0.2 fd
c) 0.125 √fm
Where,
fd = compressive stress due to dead loads in N/mm2
fm = compressive stress of Masonry prism in N/mm2
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 Other Masonry
Properties

Density = 19 KN/m3

Elastic Modulus:

E = 2400 MPa (Brick in Cement mortar)

E =150 – 500 MPa (For Brick in mud/ weak
mortar)

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 Steel
Reinforcement

Density = 78.5 KN/m3

Elastic Modulus = 2 X 105 N/mm2

Yield Strength = 415 N/mm2 (for Tor Steel)

• = 500 N/mm2 (for TMT Steel)
• = 250 N/mm2 (for Mild Steel)
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 GI Wire
Mesh

Density = 78.5 KN/m3

Elastic Modulus = 2 X 105 N/mm2

Yield Strength = 415 N/mm2 (for Tor Steel)

• = 250 N/mm2 (for Mild Steel)

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 Permissible Stress in
steel reinforcement
IS 456: 2000, Table 22

For fy = 250 MPa (Mild steel):

fy (permissible) =140 MPa in Tension
=130 MPa in compression

For fy = 415 MPa (Tor steel):

fy (permissible) = 230 MPa in Tension
= 190 MPa in compression
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 For fy = 500 MPa (TMT steel):
fy (permissible)= 0.55 fy in Tension = 275 MPa
= 190 MPa (Same as 415Mpa) in
compression

8/6/2019 Type your presentation theme - edit to put title on Insert/header & footer

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 Objectives review

At the end of this session, participants will be

able to:

• List the materials used in masonry building

• List and define the construction system of

masonry building

• List the mechanical properties of masonry

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 Thank You!!!

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