Author
AL-JOLAHY, A.; KULAIB, M.
Department of Civil Engineering Sana’a University, Yemen

Abstract
This paper presents experimental work results for different types of stone-masonry units of a loadbearing masonry construction used in Yemen and tested in compression. It also establishes test results for stone wallettes constructed using three types of natural-stone units representing for low, medium and high strengths. The research intended to examine the applicability of the Eurocode 6 methods for the determination of unit and masonry compression strengths in regard with Yemeni load-bearing masonry construction. The tests were conducted in accordance with the European standards (EN) and covered units of different sizes at three different conditions of oven dry, air dry and wet. Compressive strengths obtained for the units tested in air dry, oven dry and wet conditions were compared. Moreover, compressive strengths for units of different sizes tested at similar conditions were also compared. The results were utilized to assess the accuracy of multipliers incorporated with the expressions of the European standard, EN 772-1, for obtaining normalized unit-compressive strengths which are used in predicting the masonry strength as per Eurocode 6 method. The predicted characteristic compressive strengths obtained, using Eurocode 6 equation, were compared to the corresponding strengths of the tested wallettes.

Key words
Masonry, Stone, size, Strength, Normalized, Eurocode