GRAUBOHM, MARKUS1; BRAMESHUBER, WOLFGANG2

1) Dipl.-Ing., Institute of Building Materials Research (ibac), RWTH Aachen University, Germany, graubohm@ibac.rwth-aachen.de

2) Professor, Ph.D., Institute of Building Materials Research (ibac), RWTH Aachen University, Germany, brameshuber@ibac.rwth-aachen.de

Non-load-bearing partition walls made of autoclaved aerated concrete may show crack damages which are mainly caused by large deflections of the lower floor slab due to shrinkage and creep. Another load may result from the deflection of the upper floor slab when there is an insufficient separation between wall and floor slab.

It is the aim of the project to investigate the load-bearing behaviour and crack safety of non-load-bearing partition walls made of autoclaved aerated concrete depending on the wall geometry as well as on further significant boundary conditions. For this purpose a non-linear FE-model to numerically simulate the crack formation processes resulting from the load caused by the deflection of the floor slab was developed. As input parameters for the FE-calculations, the main material properties of the masonry units and the joints were experimentally determined. To confirm the calculations, large scale wall tests were carried out. In a sensitivity analysis, the failure mechanisms depending on different wall geometries and varying mechanical properties of the masonry components were clarified.

Keywords: Crack Safety, partition walls, autoclaved aerated concrete, Finite Element Method