Testing Crack Resistance of Non-Load-Bearing Ceramic Walls with Door Openings.

Tomasz Kania,Rafał Nowak,Valery Derkach

doi:10.3390/ma14061379

Abstract

Cracking in non-load-bearing internal partition walls is a serious problem that frequently occurs in new buildings within the short term after putting them into service or even before completion of construction. Sometimes, it is so considerable that it cannot be accepted by the occupiers. The article presents tests of cracking in ceramic walls with a door opening connected in a rigid and flexible way along vertical edges. The first analyzes were conducted using the finite element method (FEM), and afterward, the measurements of deformations and stresses in walls on deflecting floors were performed on a full scale in the actual building structure. The measurements enabled to determine floor deformations leading to cracking of walls and to establish a dependency between the values of tensile stresses within the area of the door opening corners and their location along the length of walls and type of vertical connection with the structure.

Highlights

Cracking of partition walls in buildings is a frequent phenomenon
The scale of this phenomenon leads to the question about the possibility and methods of counteracting it, the validity of research conducted within this scope, and consistency of requirements both with respect to acceptable deformations of structures supporting partition walls and methods of completing properly their circumferential connections and elements having an effect on cooperation with the building structure
During the first stage of the analyses (FEM TEST 1), the calculations were performed for the walls, the vertical edges of which were not connected with vertical load-bearing structures of the building, with a door opening in the middle of their span

Summary

Introduction

Cracking of partition walls in buildings is a frequent phenomenon. According to the statistical data available in the literature [1,2,3], the displacement of their supporting elements is responsible for 60–70% of damage to walls in Central and Eastern Europe. Small cracks of filling elements in the building generally are not the causes for concern; the commonness of this type of defects, their scale, and often considerable width of cracks are the reasons for expedited repair work, which is often completed still before the structures are handed over for use The scale of this phenomenon leads to the question about the possibility and methods of counteracting it, the validity of research conducted within this scope, and consistency of requirements both with respect to acceptable deformations of structures supporting partition walls and methods of completing properly their circumferential connections and elements having an effect on cooperation with the building structure. The percentage of individual building materials for the construction of this type of wall in Poland is shown in Figure 1 [3]

Methods

Results

Conclusion