Josipa Bošnjak¹, Akanshu Sharma², Amra Mešković¹ and Marina Stipetić¹
1)  Materials Testing Institute, University of Stuttgart
Pfaffenwaldring 4c, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
e-mail: {josipa.bosnjak, amra.meskovic, marina.stipetic}@mpa.uni-stuttgart.de;
2)  Institute of Construction Materials, University of Stuttgart
Pfaffenwaldring 4g, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
e-mail: akanshu.sharma@iwb.uni-stuttgart.de

Keywords: Elevated temperature, masonry performance, experimental investigation, loaddeflection, stiffness

Abstract. Although masonry is known as an excellent material against fire, the information on material characterization of the fire performance of brickwork is rather limited. In this work, experiments are performed on masonry prisms consisting of three bricks each, individual brick units and the mortar to investigate the influence of the temperature on the behaviour of masonry. Two different types of solid brick units namely, clay bricks and calcium silicate bricks, were tested. The specimens were placed in an electric furnace after waiting for at least 28 days after casting. The furnace temperature was increased at a relatively low heating rate and after reaching the desired furnace temperature it was retained for a minimum of 2 hours to ensure uniform heating of the specimen. After the completion of retention period, furnace temperature was reduced slowly to almost room temperature. The specimens were then taken out and tested using a compression testing machine. The complete load-deflection curves were obtained in the tests on the masonry prisms. The results show that although the influence of temperature on the load-carrying capacity is relatively low for moderate temperatures, it has a significant influence on masonry stiffness, which must be considered in design and assessment of masonry structures.