FraMCoS 8 2013 Toledo, Spain

Experimental Studies of Brick and Mortar Composites using Digital Image Analysis

The contribution presents novel observations on unreinforced masonry made of solid clay brick units and surrounding mortar joints. Focus is the brittle-ductile interaction of the two constituents in form of the so-called masonry prism test under axial compression. The experimental…

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Year 2013
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Abstract

The contribution presents novel observations on unreinforced masonry made of solid clay brick units and surrounding mortar joints. Focus is the brittle-ductile interaction of the two constituents in form of the so-called masonry prism test under axial compression. The experimental observations include Digital Image Correlation (DIC) data from a newly acquired 3-D DIC system to ascertain the effect of bond on the overall behaviour of the masonry composite. Special attention is directed towards the use of the DIC system to observe mismatch among the two constituents leading to tensile splitting under axial compression. Preliminary tests were performed on the brick units and mortar cubes aside from the masonry prisms using the 3-D DIC system for imaging which did display interesting results which would have been missed by traditional deformation measurements. The presentation concludes with remark on the resolution and limitations of the DIC system.