Comparison of theoretical and empirically determined service lives for wall ties in brick veneer steel stud wall systemsThis article is one of a selection of papers published in this Special Issue on Masonry.

Abstract

The issue regarding the corrosion of steel ties connecting brick veneer to its structural backing is well known and well documented. However, none of the research to date has developed field-calibrated corrosion rate and service life models specific to wall ties in brick veneer steel stud (BVSS) wall systems. In this paper, corrosion rate and service life estimates produced by two models generated by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) were compared with the empirically determined corrosion rates (CRs) and service lives of nine zinc galvanized tie specimens inspected at five buildings in four different Canadian cities. The best estimate, obtained using actual environmental data, was found to be the ISOCORRAG formula. However, the maximum difference between predicted and actual service life was still significant, indicating that a better understanding of the mechanics governing the corrosion of a tie embedded in mortar is still needed.