Parametric Study of In-Plane Collapse Mechanism of Panels with Different Masonry Geometric Bond Patterns

Masonry structures are built by laying brick or block elements, usually with mortar as cohesive joint, which results in its property that masonry is relatively strong in compression while weak in tension. Load capacity and the associated failure mechanism of a masonry wall or structure under lateral and vertical load depends on different parameters such as material (blockwork and joint) used, dimension of block elements and wall, different arrangement and workmanship of laying block elements. The historical center of Macau was recognized by UNESCO as one of the world heritages on 2005. Many of the historical buildings in this historical center were traditional masonry buildings in the south-east of China. Three types of masonry wall pattern, namely as the stretcher bond, Flemish bond and common bond, were commonly used in the construction of those masonry buildings. In this paper, the load capacity and the associated failure mechanism of these three different types of masonry wall pattern were investigated. Parametric study of these three different types of masonry wall pattern was performed by mean of limit analysis and Macro-block methods. The corresponding loading capacity results and failure mechanism obtained by these two methods were compared and discussed. It is found that lateral loading capacity for common bond and normal arrangement are smaller than Flemish bond. For Flemish bond, wall failed in sliding mechanism in the largest failure loading among these three patterns.