Author
E FEHLING(1) and J STÜRZ(2)
(1) Chair of Structural Concrete, University of Kassel
(2) Scientific Assistant at the department of Structural Concrete, University Kassel
Abstract
As a consequence of the increase of wind or seismic load values in actual design codes (Eurocodes as well as national regulations such as DIN 4149 and DIN 1053), the pertinent design checks often do not allow sufficient bearing capacity to be proven for typical load bearing masonry structures.
To increase the knowledge of the load bearing mechanisms in masonry structures, tests on masonry walls with dimensions close to reality have been performed within the research project ESECMASE. A main difficulty of such tests is to reproduce all relevant boundaries conditions representative of part of a masonry wall. Existing lateral resistance test methods were evaluated and a suitable test setup for a harmonised European standardisation is proposed.
As a next step, tests on different types of masonry with different levels of vertical loading and different wall geometries are currently being carried out under static-cyclic loading. The test results will be used to evaluate the current design models and to identify possible improvements.