CE 587

Masonry Design

Sahan Bandara
Department of Civil Engineering
University of Peradeniya
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Recap

• What is masonry construction?

• Applications of Masonry construction
• Advantages of Masonry construction
• Masonry units
• Masonry wall types
• Types of bonds
• Group number

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Group number

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Normalized compressive strength

• Normalization of the compressive strength of masonry units is required due to the difference in the size of
available units and the differences in test procedures.
• The normalized compressive strength, 𝑓𝑏 , is the compressive strength converted to the air-dried compressive
strength of an equivalent 100 mm wide × 100 mm high unit of the same material.
The normalized compressive strengths of masonry units, 𝑓𝑏 , is given by,

𝒇𝒃 = conditioning factor × shape factor (δ) × declared mean compressive strength

• Conditioning factor for air dried units is 1.0 and for wet units is 1.2.

• The declared mean compressive strength is the value declared by the masonry unit producer.

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Normalized compressive strength

𝒇𝒃 = conditioning factor × shape factor (δ) × declared mean compressive strength

• Values for shape factor are listed in terms of unit height and width in the following table adopted from table A1
of EN 772-1. For standard engineering bricks (102.5 × 65 × 215 mm), δ = 0.85.

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 Mortar

Mortar is the medium which binds together the individual structural units to create a continuous structural form
e.g., brickwork, stonework etc. Mortar serves a number of functions in masonry construction,

• bind together the individual units

• distribute the pressures evenly throughout the individual units

• infill the joints between the units and increase the resistance to moisture penetration

• maintain the sound and thermal characteristics of a wall,

It is a mixture of cement, sand, lime and water.

The properties of mortar highly depends on the
mix proportions

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 Compressive strength of mortar

• EC6 specifies four mortar classes considering the compressive strength namely M12, M6, M4 and M2. Letter M
is followed by the compressive strength in 𝑁/𝑚𝑚2 for each class.

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Characteristic compressive strength of masonry (𝒇𝒌 )

𝒇𝒌 = 𝑲 𝒇𝒃 𝟎.𝟕 𝒇𝒎 𝟎.𝟑

𝒇𝒃 is the normalised compressive strength of the masonry units,

𝒇𝒎 is the compressive strength of general-purpose mortar but not exceeding 20 𝑁/𝑚𝑚2 or 2𝑓𝑏 , whichever is the
smaller,
𝑲 is a factor relying on the group number of masonry units. Table 3.3 of EC6 provides the values for 𝐾.

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Characteristic compressive strength of masonry (𝒇𝒌 )

𝒇𝒌 = 𝑲 𝒇𝒃 𝟎.𝟕 𝒇𝒎 𝟎.𝟑

Note – ‘small plan area’

When the cross-sectional area of the wall
loaded vertically is less than 0.1 m2, the
characteristic compressive strength of
masonry should be multiplied by (0.7 + 3A),
where A is the loaded horizontal gross cross-
sectional area.

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 Partial factor for materials (𝜸𝒎 )

Partial factor for materials, 𝛾𝑚 in masonry is primarily a function of the manufacturing control of masonry units and
execution (construction) control.

Category of unit manufacturing control

• Masonry units can be classified as belonging to Category I or Category II depending on the manufacturing control.

• Category I units are those where the manufacturer operates a quality-control scheme and the probability of the
units not reaching the declared compressive strength is less than 5 %.

Class of execution control

• EC 6 allows for up to five classes of execution control but only two classes are used in the UK National Annex,
namely, 1 and 2.

• Class 1 execution control is used where high level of construction control is maintained. Class 2 execution control is
used where normal level of construction control is expected.
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Partial factor for materials (𝜸𝒎 )

Partial factor for materials, 𝛾𝑚 in masonry is primarily a function of the manufacturing control of masonry units
and execution (construction) control.

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 Design of vertically loaded masonry walls

Vertical loads can be present in a masonry wall due to loads from the supported floors, loads from the roof and the self-
weight. Vertically loaded masonry walls are essentially axially loaded members. Axially loaded member in compression
can have two types of behaviours.

• If the wall is short, where the slenderness ratio is low, failure would result from compression of the masonry
(crushing of masonry)

• If the wall is tall, where the slenderness ratio is high, there is a tendency to buckle before reaching the crushing
strength.

The tendency for the buckling induced failure needs to be considered when computing the design strength of masonry
(𝑓𝑑 ).

In EC 6, a slenderness reduction factor (𝜑) is introduced to reduce the value of 𝑓𝑑 , to account for the buckling induced
failure.

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 Design of vertically loaded masonry walls

Typical failure stress curve for a vertically loaded masonry wall with the variation of slenderness ratio.

The buckling tendency relies on the effective height and the effective thickness of the wall. These two parameters
determine the slenderness ratio. In addition, buckling failure also depend on the eccentricity of loading when they are
not acting axially.

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 Design of vertically loaded masonry walls

EC 6 states at ultimate limit state the primary requirement for the wall to be safe is,
Design load (𝑵𝑬𝑫 ) ≤ Load resistance (𝑵𝑹𝑫 )

𝜱𝒊,𝒎 𝒕𝒇𝒌
𝑵𝑹𝒅 =
𝜸𝒎

𝜱𝒊,𝒎 - capacity reduction factor at wall ends 𝛷𝑖 or at wall middle 𝛷𝑚 appropriately allowing for the effects of
slenderness and eccentricity of loading
t– wall thickness
𝒇𝒌 – characteristic compressive strength of masonry
𝜸𝒎 - partial factor of safety for masonry

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Effective height (𝒉𝒆𝒇 )
The effective height (ℎ𝑒𝑓 ) of a load bearing wall is a function of the actual wall height, h, and end/edge restraints or
the stiffening of the wall.

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Effective height (𝒉𝒆𝒇 )

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Effective height (𝒉𝒆𝒇 )

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Effective height (𝒉𝒆𝒇 )

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Effective height (𝒉𝒆𝒇 )

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Summary

• Group number
• Normalized compressive strength of masonry units (𝒇𝒃 )
• Compressive strength of mortar (𝒇𝒎 )
• Characteristic compressive strength of masonry (𝒇𝒌 )
• Partial factor for materials (𝜸𝒎 )
• Design of vertically loaded masonry walls
𝜱𝒊,𝒎 𝒕𝒇𝒌
Load resistance 𝑵𝑹𝒅 = 𝜸𝒎

Effective height (𝒉𝒆𝒇 )

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