Strain in Brick Wall of Five-Story Building

Brickwork as a structural material has recently been given new freedom which permits its design to be based on rational analysis. To make possible more accurate analysis of brickwork structures a continuous program of recording field data must be carried out. In the absence of a precedent, the vibrating wire strain gauge is proposed as a suitable instrument for measuring strains in brickwork over long periods of time and under field conditions. Operation, installation, calibration and accuracy verification is discussed. The recorded strains from a five-story building under construction are studied. These readings indicate that the rigid concrete floor slabs of a building will provide restraint against vertical splitting of the walls. This is the standard mode of failure in isolated laboratory test walls. The results also demonstrated that for the design of tall brickwork structures it is valid to assume a uniformly distributed load in the lower floors, even when the loads above are not uniformly applied.