In-plane Performance of Masonry Shear Walls Year Two

A. Overall Project Objective Recent research at the University of Calgary has focused on shear walls and on evaluating the influence of various parameters on in-plane shear capacity. The reason for this is that, for example, while it is recognized by most researchers that compression on walls increases the shear strength of masonry, the quantification of this effect has been reported to vary from 40 to 70% [1,8] and the factors adopted by various design standards range from 0.25 up to 0.4. Compression on walls is just one of many factors affecting the shear strength and failure mode of shear walls, but illustrates that balancing an understanding of the complex failure modes with the simplicity required for design codes is difficult. Therefore, the overall goal is to provide recommendations for the improvement of design guidelines for shear in masonry. In working toward this goal, the following have already been or are near completion: 1. Thorough review of the literature and existing design guidelines for on shear in masonry. 2. Development of a database of published in-plane shear and material property test data. 3. Preliminary analysis of the data for the effects of the common parameters in shear models.

Faculty Supervisor:

Shelley Lissel

Student:

Partner:

Canada Masonry Design Centre (ON)

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Construction and infrastructure

University:

University of Calgary

Program: