Permissible Stress Level of Brick Masonry under Compressive Cyclic Loading

Abstract

Laboratory tests revealed that the behavior of brick masonry under compressive cyclic loading is characterized by three distinct stress-strain curves. These three curves are termed as envelope curve, common point curve and stability point curve. The envelope curve is obtained by superimposing the cyclic peaks on the monotonic stress-strain curve. The common point curve is the locus of intersection points of loading and unloading curves of the cycles. If for the same cycle, the loading and unloading are repeated several times, the intersection points of loading and unloading paths will stabilize at a lower bound. The locus of these stabilized points (lower bound points) of all cycles form the stability point curve. Therefore, the stability point curve can be used as a measure for the allowable stress for masonry under cyclic loadings. The proposed cyclic allowable stress level is associated with the accumulation of residual (plastic) strain levels as a result of cyclic loading history. The permissible stress level was found to be about two thirds of the cyclic peak stress of the specimen.