Abstract

Bonded brickwork loadbearing walls are commonly seen in many colonial period structures around the world; however, most research studies in the past and the current design provisions are primarily based on single leaf brickwork. Due to the anisotropic natu re of brickwork, the strength and deformation characteristics would be different for bonded brickwork walls and their design using the provisions of single leaf bonded brickworks may be un-conservative. Therefore, to understand the compressive behaviour of differently bonded brickworks, an experimental programme followed by a numerical investigation were carried out in this research. The experimental programme comprised of testing nine wallettes under uniaxial compression. Three different types of bonded thicknesses (single, double and triple) were used to construct the wallettes. The experimental results are presented and discussed in terms of failure modes, compressive strengths and stress-strain responses obtained. Further a numerical investigation based on the micro modelling approach was employed to verify the experimental findings. The experimental and numerical modelling results indicate that the change in brickwork thicknesses does not significantly increase the compressive strength of the masonry. The increased number of weak perpend joints in the bonded brickwork wallettes, could be a reason of lower strength and thus, a general notion of increment in compressive resistance due to the reduction in slenderness i s not applicable for bonded brickwork. Parametric analyses were also carried out and reported for different slenderness ratios to extend the understanding on the behaviour of bonded brickworks under compression.