Problems in the assessment of the stress-strain relationship of masonry

Abstract eng:
In restoration or repair of old buildings the correct estimation of the stress-strain-relationship of the existing structure is an important task. Masonry stiffness is crucial for the load bearing behaviour of a structure. It is common practise to evaluate the masonry stiffness from the compressive strength in lack of detailed investigations. This paper illustrates the danger of this approach in two case studies. The first example is a stone bridge upon the main. The thickness of the mortar joints in this construction allowed sampling of mortars suitable for direct testing of the stress-strain-relationship under uniaxial compression. Thus it was possible to calculate the masonry stiffness from the measured elastic modulus of stone and mortar. It became evident, that a first rough estimation according to the building standard would not have been safe. In a second case study dealing with masonry pillars it is shown that the quality of mortar samples is influenced by the situation of the specimen in the section.

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