Study of the influence of different parameters on the buckling behaviour of masonry walls. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2012.04.053

Abstract

A study of the influence and interaction of the main parameters involved on the buckling behaviour ofmasonry walls subjected to vertical loading is presented. For this purpose, the effects of the variationof the slenderness ratio, the eccentricity of applied load, the stiffness of the wall and the tensile strengthof the unit–mortar interface on the load bearing capacity of masonry walls are analyzed by means of anumerical model based on the micro-modelling approach.The study has confirmed the possibility of describing the combined effect of both slenderness and stiffnessby means of a single non-dimensional parameter. In addition, the research shows that, in the case ofslender walls, the tensile strength of the unit–mortar interface may influence significantly on the maximumload eccentricity that the walls can resist. The paper also includes a comparison of the resultsobtained in the parametric study carried out with the analytical method provided by EN 1996-1-1:2005.