Analysis on the mechanical properties of historical brick masonry after machinery demolition

Abstract

The demolition process of a historical brick masonry building in St. Petersburg, Russia was observed as a case study and research was conducted on the possibility of reusing the resultant debris, which was composed of high quality brick masonry, as new building material. Therefore, samples from the demolition debris, i.e. brick, mortar and wall pieces were collected and tested for their mechanical properties, according to Russian standards, when available, and according to International Standards for the rest. The results for the compression test of brick and mortar separately as well as wall prisms indicated that their strength was still higher than standard limits, therefore, these wall pieces could be reused under appropriate conditions. Additionally, the bed mortar was tested under shear loads in order to understand if the jointing was still reliable or not. Eurococe 6 (Eurocode 6: Design of masonry structures – Part 1–1: General Rules for Reinforced and Unreinforced Masonry Structures, (2005)) defines a reference table for comparison, which showed that the shear resistance obtained from the wall prisms was also reliable.