Huina1 Pan, Andrea Isfeld and Nigel Shrive
Huina1 Pan, Master’s candidate, Department of Civil Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, 2500 University Drive NW, AB, Canada, Canada, hpan@ucalgary.ca
Andrea Isfeld, Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Civil Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, 2500 University Drive NW, AB, Canada, Canada, acisfeld@ucalgary.ca
Nigel Shrive, Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Schulich School of Engineering, 2500 University Drive NW, AB, Canada, ngshrive@ucalgary.ca
ABSTRACT
The behaviour of masonry under shear loading is not well understood. Researchers have used different test configurations to determine the strength of masonry panels, the majority being with an aspect ratio close to one. Numerous equations have been proposed for estimating the shear strength of masonry. For a set of recent tests on stone masonry, the maximum principal tensile stress at the centre of the wall was shown to be the best predictor of wall strength. This criterion was proposed in 1970 following tests on brickwork. We show why this particular measure would be a good predictor of the strength of plain masonry panels. We also show why different compressive strut widths should be considered for predicting the stiffness of a masonry panel subject to shear and for predicting the strength of that panel. The effect of axial compression on the strength of the panel is also clarified.
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