By J.L. Varela-Rivera , D. Navarrete-Macias, L.E. Fernandez-Baqueiro, E.I. Moreno
- The out-of-plane behaviour of masonry walls has not been studied as well as the corresponding in-plane behaviour
- Abrams et al. [1] studied the behaviour of unreinforced infill walls subjected to uniform pressures. Wall specimens were first subjected to a series of in-plane loads to crack the walls, and later to out-of-plane uniform pressures; the goal was to study the influence of damage due to in-plane loads in the out-of-plane strength of the masonry infill walls.
- An analytical model based on an arching mechanism was developed by Abrams et al. to predict the out-of-plane strength of the walls; that model was developed for stiff concrete frames as typically found in infill masonry walls; crushing of masonry was assumed as the failure mechanism
- One of the conclusions of that work is that the out-of-plane strength of the walls depends on the actual stiffness of the concrete frame around the masonry wall; as that stiffness decreases, the wall’s strength also decreases
- Griffith and Vaculik [3] studied the behaviour of eight unreinforced masonry walls subjected to uniform pressures; six of those walls were constructed with openings. Variables studied were the wall aspect ratio, boundary conditions (combined simple and fixed supports), and axial loads.