Behaviour of thin layer mortared concrete masonry under combined shear and compression

Abstract

This paper presents experimental studies on the behaviour of a thin layer polymer mortared concrete masonry under combined shear–compression. Thirty thin layer mortared concrete masonry panels with five bed joint orientations were constructed and tested under vertical compression to generate a wide range of compression to shear ratios from zero to infinity at each of the bed joints of the panels. The strength and deformation characteristics are discussed in this paper. Unlike the conventional 10 mm thick cement mortared masonry, the thin layer polymer mortared masonry failed in a combined mechanism involving both the block and the mortar in some combination of shear–compression; however, similar to the conventional masonry, its strength and deformation were affected by the orientation of the bed joint to the direction of the applied loading. This paper reports a comparative study of the experimental results with a number of shear–compression tests on varied masonry systems reported in the literature; the thin layer mortared concrete masonry is shown trending towards isotropic behaviour compared to conventional masonry, which is distinctly orthotropic.