Experimental Testing of Unreinforced Masonry Shear Walls and Comparison with Nominal Capacity Predictions

This paper presents an experimental program in which 16 full-scale clay brick unreinforced masonry walls were constructed and tested under in-plane cyclic shear loading. These walls have been divided into four sets of nominally identical specimens constructed with the same masonry units from the same mortar composition by the same mason and cured for a consistent period of time. The repeatability of these tests allows for the variability of the peak in-plane shear capacities of these wall configurations to be investigated. Furthermore, these tests were supplemented with material characterization tests, examining the tensile, shear, compressive, and elastic properties of the masonry utilized in this study. In addition, assessments of the accuracy of the current Australian standard for masonry design, as well as that of other expressions found in the literature, have been made. The findings of this analysis indicate that the Australian standard maintains significant limitations in its ability to correctly determine the shear capacity and failure mechanism of masonry shear walls. This error is reduced, but not wholly mitigated through the application of the deterministic equations present in the other design guides.