Effect of Weight on Stability of Masonry Walls

This paper presents a buckling analysis of a masonry or unreinforced concrete wall that possesses no tensile strength. The wall is pinned eccentrically at both ends, and subjected to a compressive line load at the top and the weight as distributed along the height. The governing differential equation is nonlinear and includes terms called spatial delays which require the prediction of the displacement at points different from the point at which the solution is currently sought. The method of solution is finite difference with a polynomial prediction for the delay terms. Interaction curves are presented which illustrate the critical buckling load as a function of the weight. Previously obtained results are presented for comparison wherever appropriate.