DILLON, PATRICK1; FONSECA, FERNANDO2

1) Ph.D. Candidate, Brigham Young University, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, pbdillon@gmail.com

2) Associate Professor, Brigham Young University, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, fonseca@byu.edu

This article will discuss the causes of uncertainty in masonry shear wall data reporting from four disparities in testing methodology. The four sources of discrepancies discussed are boundary conditions, strain rate effects, loading patterns, and size effects. The testing methodologies from each source are reviewed by the extent of their use by researchers and by their relation to actual masonry performance.

This article will present a standardised method of reporting data for each category. The conclusions presented in this paper are as follows. The influence of different boundary conditions between specimens can be eliminated by reporting the shear span ratio for each specimen. All test data should be adjusted to correspond to the statically tested strength. It is proposed that researchers report the strength of masonry shear wall data equivalent to the periodic or harmonic testing patterns. Reduced-scale masonry test data should be reported for the equivalent prototype.

Keywords: Masonry, shear wall, boundary conditions, strain rate effects, loading pattern, size effects