Correlation Establishment of Compressive Strength and Bond Strength of Fly Ash Brick Masonry

Abstract

Masonry is a heterogeneous material with the most complex, non-linear, anisotropic behaviour among all other construction materials (steel, concrete, etc.). Both masonry compressive strength and bond strength are two important parameters for structural design. A wide range of experimental studies considering two types of fly ash bricks and three grades of cement mortar is conducted to check the influence of masonry bond strength on its compressive strength. During the compressive strength test on stack bonded prisms, it is seen that when the brick–mortar bond strength is poor, the prism failure is also accompanied by a failure of the brick–mortar bond. The experimental result in the present study also reveals that with the increase in shear bond strength compressive strength increases indicating the existence of a correlation between these two important parameters. The correlation between compressive strength and shear bond strength of masonry is investigated and an analytical model is suggested accordingly.