Investigation of Mechanical Properties of Masonry Materials Under Compressive Loading: Experimental and Numerical Study

Abstract

Masonry structures are buildings whose load-bearing system consists of vertical walls made of different units such as bricks, aerated concrete or natural stones. Masonry structures are quite common because they can be built quickly and economically with the use of local materials without requiring skilled labor. In the design of masonry structures and in the analyses of existing masonry structures, it is very important to determine the mechanical properties of the material accurately and to use them in the calculation models created with the micro model technique. In this study, the mechanical behaviour of hollow brick, clay brick and aerated concrete masonry units under uniaxial compressive loading was investigated experimentally for the purpose of masonry analysis. Using the experimental results, the concrete damage plasticity (CDP) model is proposed for the clay-based brick material for applications to be analysed by micro modelling technique in finite element software. The method used in the study will provide light for experimental studies to be carried out to determine the mechanical properties of different types of masonry units and to reflect them to the analysis models.