Author
MOHAMMAD AGHA, H.; LI, Y.; ASAL SALIH, O.; ZHENG N.
Chongqing University, Department of Civil Engineering

Abstract
This paper presents test results of eight masonry walls, four of them with door opening and the rest without openings. Each wall in each group was constructed with different tie-columns configurations . Two new types of no-formwork structural column were presented in this research. The walls with andwithout openings, were constructed from 240-mm clay brick thick and were 3.0-m long and 1.5-m high. The motivation of the present work is associated with the important influence that the openings and the tie-columns introduce in the global behaviour of masonry walls. The walls were subjected to cyclic in-plane lateral load up to 85% of the ultimate load level. A complete description of the test setup and results is provided. Two comparisons were done: the first one focused on the behaviour of the perforated and solid walls; the second one focused on the effect of the tie column on the global behaviour of each group. To achieve this goal, a complete description of the walls structural behaviour in terms of crack pattern, lateral strength, ductility and energy dissipation capacity was carried out. Test results obtained from this research indicate that the openings and tie columns significantly affect the lateral strength and the ductile performance of masonry walls. The feasibility of the two proposed no-formwork tie-columns is also verified and approved.

Key words
Perforated walls, masonry wall, openings, tie-columns, cyclic loading