Experimental and numerical assessment of the shear behaviour of lime mortar clay brick masonry triplets

Abstract

This study investigates the fundamental shear response of masonry triplets incorporating fired-clay bricks and hydraulic lime mortars. It examines the behaviour under ambient-dry and wet conditions, corresponding to 48 h submersion in water, as well as the effectiveness of strengthening with fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) laminates and glass fibre meshes (GFM). After describing the materials, mix designs and specimen details, the main results from 50 triplet tests subjected to shear and normal pre-compression are presented. Digital image correlation measurement techniques, which are employed in order to obtain a detailed insight into the shear behaviour, enable clear identification and quantification of the main failure modes and response characteristics of the brick-mortar interfaces. The results show that the shear strength of wet triplets was about 20% lower on average than of those in dry conditions. Specimens provided with FRP sheets offered a higher strength enhancement than those with GFM. The strength increase using FRP was in the range of 16.6%–185.8% compared with the non-strengthened dry counterpart, depending on the laminate layout and normal stress level. In contrast, the strength increase using GFM, in conjunction with a mortar overlay, was typically less than 10% compared with the non-strengthened dry counterpart. A significantly higher strength contribution from both FRP and GFM was obtained for elements without pre-compression. Although the strength enhancement using GFM was generally modest, such strengthening is activated gradually leading to a relatively ductile interfacial behaviour in comparison with FRP. In order to provide further insights into the behaviour, complementary nonlinear numerical simulations are undertaken, using the key parameters obtained from the tests. The numerical models employ detailed surface-based cohesive-contact approaches, with due account for inelastic damage at the masonry interfaces, and damage-plasticity modelling for the constitutive response of brick materials. It is shown that the numerical approaches adopted are able to capture reliably the main behavioural characteristics and failure modes, and can therefore be employed for further numerical assessments.