Performance of cement clay interlocking hollow brick masonry walls subjected to diagonal compression

Abstract

This study presents an experimental investigation on the diagonal compressive response of cement-clay interlocking (CCI) hollow brick masonry walls. The diagonal compressive responses of the masonry walls were investigated by performing laboratory tests on large size (1000×1000×125 mm) CCI hollow brick masonry walls. CCI hollow brick masonry walls were constructed using different techniques to represent existing construction practice in Thailand. A total of five masonry walls were constructed and tested under diagonal compression. One masonry wall was constructed by dry stacking of CCI hollow bricks over each other in the running bond pattern without using any binding material (i.e., un-grouted masonry wall). In the second and third walls, circular and square holes in the CCI bricks were filled with Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC)-Sand grout and high-performance non-shrink cement-sand grout, respectively. The remaining two walls (i.e., wall number 4 and 5) were similar to the wall number two and three, however, prior to the grout filling, steel bars were also inserted into the holes at different locations to reinforce the masonry walls. It was evidenced from the experimental results that cement grout impact, shear strength and shear modulus of the CCI brick masonry walls. It was also noticed that the reinforced CCI hollow brick masonry walls showed very ductile failure mechanism as compared with unreinforced masonry walls along with an increase in the ultimate diagonal load carrying capacity of the CCI masonry walls. © School of Engineering, Taylor's University.