E. Minaie¹, F.L. Moon² and A.A. Hamid³

1. D. Candidate, Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA, minaie@drexel.edu
2. Assistant Professor, Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA, flm72@drexel.edu
3. Professor, Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA, hamidaa@drexel.edu

ABSTRACT

The objective of this paper is to establish the accuracy of the existing shear expression for reinforced masonry shear walls when applied to partially grouted (PG) masonry shear walls. To accomplish this objective 60 PG masonry shear wall specimens tested in the past have been located, and seven existing shear expressions adopted by current codes, such as MSJC 2008, and developed in the past research were employed. Most of these expressions are developed based on the research on fully grouted (FG) masonry shear walls. The reported experimental shear resistance of the walls were compared with the predicted values by existing shear expressions. The results of this study indicate that the shear strength expression for reinforced masonry shear walls provided by MSJC (along with others) appears unconservative for PG masonry shear walls. The lack of conservatism may result from the empirical development of this expression based exclusively on fully-grouted shear wall tests, which display failure modes distinctly different than their PG counterparts.

KEYWORDS: concrete masonry, reinforced masonry, shear walls, partially grouted, shear strength, experimental research.

A2-1