Limit States Criteria for Masonry Construction

Abstract

Specifications for masonry and other construction materials are expected to move gradually over the next several years toward the adoption of probability based limit states criteria for design. This paper illustrates how such criteria might be developed for brick and concrete masonry construction using, as an example, masonry walls loaded in combinations of axial compression and out-of-plane flexure. The paper identifies the type of data and analyses that are necessary to develop probability-based resistance criteria.