Mechanical Properties of Unreinforced Brick Masonry, Section1

Before the advent of concrete and steel, masonry helped build civilizations. From Egypt in Africa, Rome in Europe, Maya in the America to China in Asia, masonry was exploited to construct the most significant, magnificent and long lasting structures on the Earth. Looking at the Egyptian pyramids, Mayan temples, Roman coliseum and Chinese Great Wall, one cannot stop wondering about the significance and popularity that masonry has had through out history. Lourenco et al (1989) summed up the reasons for the popularity of masonry in the following, 'The most important characteristic of masonry construction is its simplicity. Laying pieces of stone or bricks on top of each other, either with or without cohesion via mortar, is a simple, though adequate, technique that has been successful ever since remote ages. Other important characteristics are the aesthetics, solidity, durability, low maintenance, versatility, sound absorption and fire protection' Despite these advantages, masonry is no longer preferred structural material in many parts of the developed world, especially in seismically active parts of the world. Partly, masonry and especially unreinforced masonry (URM) has mechanical properties such as strength and ductility inferior to those of reinforced concrete and steel. Moreover, masonry structures were traditionally built basedmore » on rules of thumb acquired over many years of practice and/or empirical data from testing. Accordingly, we do not have a rigorous and uniform method of analysis and design for masonry. Nevertheless, the world still possesses numerous historic and ordinary masonry structures, which require maintenance and strengthening to combat the assault of time and nature. Hence, it is important to study fundamental properties of masonry so that new masonry structures can be effectively designed and built, and the cost for servicing old structures and for building new ones will be less expensive.« less