Cyclic in-plane shear testing of unreinforced masonry walls with openings

Abstract

This paper presents the results to date of an experimental testing programme of unreinforced masonry (URM) walls subject to cyclic in-plane shear loading. The primary aim of this experimental program is to obtain force-displacement relationships for URM walls with openings and to understand the influence of wall geometry and vertical precompression on in-plane wall failure modes. The experimental programme consists of testing 12 full-scale wall specimens. These 12 walls consist of three geometrical configurations, two levels of pre-compression, and two repeats for each wall. To date, 10 of these 12 combinations have been successfully tested with the two remaining tests being repeats of walls previously tested.