Experimental Study to Evaluate the Load-Bearing Capacity of Autoclaved Aerated Concrete Block Walls

It is common to use Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) blocks in the construction of partition walls and infills because of their distinctive properties, including ease of work, energy conservation, and enhanced sustainability. Experiments for the strength evaluation of AAC load-bearing walls are still limited. This paper presents an experimental study of the behavior of AAC blocks as load-bearing walls under static loads up to failure. Due to the difficulty of using the direct contact method to measure and monitor deformations in walls, the Digital Image Correlation (DIC) method was used to obtain the required data throughout the test. Eight specimens of confined walls were tested to study the effect of the thickness of the block, type of bonding material, and type of plastering on the wall strength and failure modes. ‎ The results showed that the smaller the thickness of the AAC block, the greater the strength of the wall. Also, using adhesive mortar leads to the cohesion of the wall and increases its load-bearing capacity better than using cement-sand or gypsum mortar. In addition, strengthening the plastering with steel wire meshes showed superior performance in wall behavior in improving cracking resistance and ultimate loads.