Influence of Joint Thickness and Mortar-Block Elastic Properties on the Strength and Stresses Developed in Soil-Cement Block Masonry
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 21, Issue 10
Abstract
Soil-cement blocks are employed for load bearing masonry buildings. This paper deals with the study on the influence of bed joint thickness and elastic properties of the soil-cement blocks, and the mortar on the strength and behavior of soil-cement block masonry prisms. Influence of joint thickness on compressive strength has been examined through an experimental program. The nature of stresses developed and their distribution, in the block and the mortar of the soil-cement block masonry prism under compression, has been analyzed by an elastic analysis using FEM. Influence of various parameters like joint thickness, ratio of block to mortar modulus, and Poisson’s ratio of the block and the mortar are considered in FEM analysis. Some of the major conclusions of the study are: (1) masonry compressive strength is sensitive to the ratio of modulus of block to that of the mortar and masonry compressive strength decreases as the mortar joint thickness is increased for the case where the ratio of block to mortar modulus is more than 1; (2) the lateral tensile stresses developed in the masonry unit are sensitive to the ratio and the Poisson’s ratio of mortar and the masonry unit; and (3) lateral stresses developed in the masonry unit are more sensitive to the Poisson’s ratio of the mortar than the Poisson’s ratio of the masonry unit.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 21 • Issue 10 • October 2009
Pages: 535 - 542
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Apr 12, 2006
Accepted: Jan 22, 2009
Published online: Sep 15, 2009
Published in print: Oct 2009
Notes
Note. Associate Editor: Chiu Liu
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