Author

K. F. HANSEN (1), C. M. PEDERSEN (1) and L. G. HAGSTEN (2)

(1) Danish Building Research Institute, DK-2970 Hørsholm, Denmark

(2) EngineeringCollege of Aarhus, DK-8000 Aarhus, Denmark

Corresponding author: Klavs Feilberg Hansen, Department of Building Design and Technology, Danish Building Research Institute, Dr. Neergaards Vej 15, DK-2970 Hørsholm, Denmark. E-mail: kfh@sbi.dk

Abstract

This paper describes how the rules in EN 1996-1-1 Eurocode 6: ‘Design of masonry structures’ can be implemented and used to verify the safety of load-bearing unreinforced masonry walls.

The implementation described is based on a plastic (calculation) model of the walls assuming that the tensile strength of masonry perpendicular to bed joints is zero. Using a plastic model makes it natural to replace the specification of the eccentricity of the vertical load on the wall, which defines the point where the vertical load acts, with an eccentricity interval specifying all the points where the vertical load can be transferred to the wall.

For walls subjected to mainly vertical loading, a beam model of the wall is used. For walls subjected to mainly lateral loading, a modified yield-line model is used. The main problem of the approach described is the determination of the eccentricity intervals. A more accurate determination of these eccentricities than given in this paper requires more research into the behaviour of the joints between walls and floors either experimentally or by means of an advanced finite element program that takes cracking in the bed joints into account.