Miranda, Henry1; Feldman, Lisa R.2 and Sparling, Bruce F.3
1 Ph.D. Candidate, University of Saskatchewan, 57 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK, Canada, hpm916@mail.usask.ca
2 Associate Professor, Department of Civil, Geological, and Environmental Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, 57 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK, Canada, lisa.feldman@usask.ca
3 Professor, Department of Civil, Geological, and Environmental Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, 57 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK, Canada, bruce.sparling@usask.ca
ABSTRACT
Nine block wall specimens featuring conventional reinforcement placed in ungrouted cells were constructed as part of a larger experimental investigation at the University of Saskatchewan. Six
of the specimens featured a fully grouted first course, with the remainder of the wall being ungrouted; the remaining three walls were completely ungrouted. The walls were tested with welldefined
support conditions under monotonically increasing four-point out-of-plane loading. Preliminary results showed that these walls exhibited considerably increased ductility and loadcarrying
capacity as compared to unreinforced walls. Visual observations made during testing confirmed the development of a three-hinged mechanism; in addition to the pinned top support, cracks formed between the base of the wall and the supporting concrete grade beam and within the constant moment region between the points of applied load. The resulting load versus mid-height
deflection response appeared to be insensitive to whether or not the first block course was grouted. An analytical model developed to predict the load versus mid-height deflection response theoretically matched reasonably well with that obtained experimentally.
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