Methods for determining mechanical properties of walls

Abstract

Masonry buildings with wooden floor structures, not equipped with vertical and horizontal tie beams, suffered the greatest damage in the earthquake that hit Zagreb on 22 March 2020. It is very significant to know mechanical properties of walls during preparation of the masonry buildings renovation design and, consequently, methods for determining such properties are presented in detailed in this paper. In addition to description of these methods, results obtained by testing shear strength of walls of twenty masonry buildings in Zagreb (149 measuring points in total) are also presented, as well as the results obtained by testing compressive strength of bricks on 14 buildings, using a total of 62 samples.

Keywords

• walls
• mechanical properties
• testing
• shear strength
• compressive strength