Investigation of the bed joint reinforcement effect on the drift capacity of modern unreinforced masonry walls

EESD, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1015 Lausanne Switzerland

^* Corresponding author: ernesto.inzunza@epfl.ch

Abstract

Bed joint reinforcement significantly affects the shear capacity of masonry walls due to its effective ability to transfer shear forces through a diagonal crack, but how does this phenomenon impact its drift capacity? This paper presents an experimental study containing a series of four quasi-static cyclic tests conducted on masonry walls of same size. Two of them incorporated truss-type bed joint reinforcement, while the other two were completely unreinforced. All specimens were subjected to double bending boundary conditions to observe shear-controlled behaviour and were tested under two levels of compression load. The primary objective of this research is to determine the role of horizontal reinforcement in the seismic properties of unreinforced masonry walls focusing on the displacement capacity. The findings from this experimental study are expected to provide empirical evidence for subsequent numerical simulations and contribute to the development of analytical formulations. The results aim to enhance our understanding of the seismic response of masonry walls, ultimately informing design practices and seismic retrofitting strategies.