Mechanical Characterization of Masonry Walls With Flat-Jack Tests

Abstract

The results from an experimental campaign on old masonry buildings from Lisbon are presented and discussed. The tests aim at the evaluation of the masonry deformability properties in compression and the shear strength parameters based on flat-jack testing technique. Tests were carried out in both internal brick masonry walls and external rubble limestone masonry walls. The evaluation of the shear parameters was done according to a new testing technique—shear tests onmasonry walls with flat-jacks—involvingmore than one masonry unit. One of the goals is the calibration and development of this testing technique and to show its first application to the test of rubble stone masonry walls. For that, the experimental technique is fully explained in this paper, and the results of some in situ tests are used to discuss the calibration procedure. Because of the characteristics of the walls, in particular, the great heterogeneity and thickness of the external masonry walls, the application of the flat-jack testing technique involved some uncertainties that are described and debated in this work.