In-plane shear capacity of pre-compressed unreinforced and infilled hollow concrete blockwork masonry walls

Abstract

The main focus of this experimental analysis was to determine the in-plane shear capacity of an unreinforced and infilled hollow concrete masonry wall under precompression. The studies were carried out, and the results were compared. In this analysis, four test walls were conducted, two using local bricks ‘Dobblu’ unreinforced, and two using bricks ‘Singlu’ infilled with C25 concrete. The mortar that was used within the wall specimens was an M2 mortar mix. The main testing procedure consisted of applying two in plane loads to the wall specimen, one on the right side of the wall at the top, and one of the left side of the wall at the bottom. The whole system was also under pre compression from a spreader beam equivalent to the load of a 3 storey building. The results differed from the unreinforced to the infilled specimens, with the infilled walls having a higher capacity for in plane shear resistance. The unreinforced wall specimens both failed at approximately 80KN by means of local failure showing significant deformation on the LVDT’s. On the other hand, the infilled specimen showed little to no deformation on the LVDT’s, reaching a maximum load of up to 130KN, until which the apparatus reached it capacity. A numerical investigation was then carried out which showed the shear capacity of the infilled specimen to be above 2500KN.