Analysis of uniaxial compression behavior of hollow concrete block masonry: experimental and analytical approaches

Abstract

This article focuses on the uniaxial compression behavior of concrete hollow brick masonry assembly. This study was performed both by experimental and analytical approaches. In the first experimental part, the compression tests were done according to the European standard EN1052-1. It is highlighted from the tests that this concrete hollow brick masonry is a very high dispersive material and that the compression behavior of this masonry is similar and depends principally on that of bricks. In addition, the vertical splitting failure modes reflect the effect of "expanding/restraining" for this type of masonry and the elastic properties determined from these tests are comparable with the values found in the literature. Then, in the analytical approach, the simple calculations were done by different existed models to predict the compressive strength of masonry prism. A comparison of the results obtained by using these models with those of experimentation shows that only the model which takes into account the effect of vertical joints is mostly adapted for the safe design of this masonry prism under uniaxial compression load.