BULTOT, E.1, DEGEE, H.2, VAN PARYS, L.3

1 PhD student, University of Mons, Faculty of engineering, Civil engineering and structural mechanics department, elodie.bultot@umons.ac.be

2 Professor, Hasselt University, Construction Engineering Research Group, herve.degee@uhasselt.be

3 Professor, University of Mons, Faculty of engineering, Civil engineering and structural mechanics department, laurent.vanpays@umons.ac.be

Unreinforced masonry walls are well known as highly vulnerable to out-of-plane loading. When subjected to transverse loading and depending on their boundary conditions, they are likely to develop collapse mechanisms involving horizontal, vertical and diagonal yield lines. This paper presents the results of a comprehensive experimental investigation carried out on masonry walls of about 1m² subjected to static and cyclic out-of-plane bending with the objectives of highlighting failure modes and to quantify the bearing capacity related to horizontal, vertical and diagonal bending. Tests were conducted on dry and mortar bound masonry walls. In order to experimentally outline the influence of different key parameters, different pre-compression rates are applied and three types of bricks with different shape and size are used (to study the effect of the wall thickness). Different types of loads are also investigated. In a first stage, loads are statically applied until failure of the wall. A second set of tests was then carried out by applying semi-cyclic loads in order to highlight the effect of the progressive damage appearing inside the masonry, e.g. in the case of a seismic event.

Keywords: Unreinforced masonry, out-of-plane loads, experimental investigation