EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON AXIAL AND DIAGONAL COMPRESSIVE BEHAVIOR OF BRICK MASONRY WALLS

Abstract

Masonry is one of the oldest building materials known to the man and is believed to have been in use for over 6000 years. Construction using masonry remains relatively popular in many parts of the world and is practiced widely even today. This study present an experimental investigation on the axial and diagonal compressive response of hollow cement clay interlocking brick masonry walls. Hollow interlocking bricks were collected from the Nakhonnayok Province of Thailand. A total under both pure axial and diagonal compression. Different types of cement-sand grouts (such as ordinary Portland cement and high performance non-shrink cement) with and without steel bars were used to construct the masonry walls. It was evidenced from the experimental results that cement grout impact ultimate load carrying capacity of hollow cement clay interlocking brick masonry walls under axial and diagonal compression. It was also noticed that the reinforced brick masonry walls showed very ductile failure mechanism as compared with unreinforced brick masonry walls along with an increase in the ultimate load carrying capacity of the hollow cement clay interlocking brick masonry walls.