Quantification of uncertainty in compressive strength of fly ash brick masonry

Abstract

The compressive strength of brick masonry, an important property for the structural assessment and design, can show a significant variation because of several influencing factors like source and proportion of constituent materials, workmanship, curing condition, etc. Quantification of uncertainty in masonry compressive strength is essential for reliability based limit state design of masonry structures. The present study investigates this aspect of fly ash brick masonry and recommends the most suitable statistical distribution to describe the variability in compressive strength. Experimentally obtained compressive strength data are analysed using various probability distribution functions capable of modelling strength properties of brittle materials and three goodness of fit tests, i.e. Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Kolmogorov-Smirnov-Lilliefors and Anderson-Darling tests. The analysis concludes that lognormal distribution is best suited among other distributions to describe the variability associated with the compressive strength of fly ash brick masonry.