Experimental Study on the In-Plane Seismic Performance of a New Type of Masonry Wall System

Abstract

The authors developed two types of block systems consisting only of main block and key block without joint mortar to improve the seismic performances and to enhance the workability. Two types of block systems have different key block shapes: one is the peanut shape, and the other is the dumbbell shape. The proposed block systems have a half-height difference between the main block and the key block to significantly improve seismic performance compared to typical masonry walls with joint mortar. In this study, in order to evaluate the in-plane seismic performance of the proposed block systems, two types of block walls are experimentally investigated, including the typical block wall. In the tests, three full-scale, single-story specimens are tested under in-plane cyclic loading, and failure patterns and cracks are carefully observed. In this paper, the in-plane loading bearing capacity, energy dissipate capacity and reuse ratios of block walls are discussed in detail. As a result, the deformability, energy absorption capacity and reuse ratio of the proposed block systems were considerably higher than those of a typical block system.