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Experimental characterization of the out-of-plane performance of regular stone masonry walls, including test setups and axial load influence

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Abstract

Stone masonry is one of the oldest and most worldwide used building techniques. Nevertheless, the structural response of masonry structures is complex and the effective knowledge about their mechanical behaviour is still limited. This fact is particularly notorious when dealing with the description of their out-of-plane behaviour under horizontal loadings, as is the case of the earthquake action. In this context, this paper describes an experimental program, conducted in laboratory environment, aiming at characterizing the out-of-plane behaviour of traditional unreinforced stone masonry walls. In the scope of this campaign, six full-scale sacco stone masonry specimens were fully characterised regarding their most important mechanic, geometric and dynamic features and were tested resorting to two different loading techniques under three distinct vertical pre-compression states; three of the specimens were subjected to an out-of-plane surface load by means of a system of airbags and the remaining were subjected to an out-of-plane horizontal line-load at the top. From the experiments it was possible to observe that both test setups were able to globally mobilize the out-of-plane response of the walls, which presented substantial displacement capacity, with ratios of ultimate displacement to the wall thickness ranging between 26 and 45 %, as well as good energy dissipation capacity. Finally, very interesting results were also obtained from a simple analytical model used herein to compute a set of experimental-based ratios, namely between the maximum stability displacement and the wall thickness for which a mean value of about 60 % was found.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the technicians of the Laboratory of Earthquake and Structural Engineering (LESE), Mr. Valdemar Luis and Mr. André Martins, for their support in the experimental activity reported in this paper and to thank the unknown reviewers for their constructive and helpful remarks. This experimental campaign was conducted with financial contribution of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through the national research project “Field Experimental Characterization of Stone Masonry Construction under Earthquake Actions” (PTDC/ECM/104520/2008).

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal

    Tiago Miguel Ferreira & Aníbal Costa

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, School of Engineering, Polytechnic of Porto, Rua Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida, 431, 4200-072, Porto, Portugal

    Alexandre A. Costa

  3. Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, s/n, 4200-465, Porto, Portugal

    António Arêde & Ana Gomes

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  1. Tiago Miguel Ferreira
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  2. Alexandre A. Costa
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  4. Ana Gomes
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  5. Aníbal Costa
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Correspondence to Tiago Miguel Ferreira.

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Ferreira, T.M., Costa, A.A., Arêde, A. et al. Experimental characterization of the out-of-plane performance of regular stone masonry walls, including test setups and axial load influence. Bull Earthquake Eng 13, 2667–2692 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-015-9742-1

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