Out-of-plane flexure of external Thermal-insulation attached to Non-load-bearing masonry walls

Abstract

The out-of-plane flexure of thermo-insulation attached on the external facades of full-scale clay masonry walls is studied. This is of importance because a considerable number of multistory buildings are in need of thermal insulation considering at the same time the seismic performance of such attachments together with the unreinforced masonry walls. Full-scale clay masonry wall specimens with or without thermal insulation were subjected in the laboratory to out-of-plane flexure. Such thermo-insulating attachments resulted in noticeable increase of the total out-of-plane flexural capacity and deformability when the thermo-insulating panels are subjected to flexural-tension. This increase is quite substantial when these panels are of either expanded polystyrene (EPS) or extruded polystyrene (XPS) and insignificant for mineral wool (MW). The observed response was used to validate a numerical methodology aimed at predicting this out-of-plane flexural performance of masonry walls with thermal insulation attachments. The beneficial effect of the thermo-insulating attachments on the out-of-plane flexural response of masonry facades depends on the adopted construction technique. This is also true for the safe performance of the thermo-insulating attachments themselves after their debonding. Despite that both the masonry facades and their attachments are considered as non-structural elements appropriate construction techniques should safeguard their acceptable out-of-plane performance when subjected to seismic type loads.