Masonry construction comprises a large portion of building construction in the U.S. and the world. Reinforced masonry construction use is increasing in moderate to higher seismic zones because of its apparent features of economy, fire safety, architectural flexibility and ease of construction. The present state of masonry structural analysis and design, and materials and construction technologies does not enable an accurate prediction of building behavior under lateral loads such as seismic loads. In the U.S., masonry buildings are designed and built with methods, codes and standards that rely upon a mixture of working stress methods, empirical rules, and questionable methods for determining allowable stress values. Masonry is also a complex building material because of the large number of design and construction variables which influence the final product configuration and its response under seismic loads. In order to describe the seismic response of masonry buildings it is necessary to develop the fundamental knowledge base to determine basic design methodologies consistent with safety and economic requirements. This research project is a theoretical and experimental investigation of the seismic performance of flanged masonry shear walls. The theoretical studies develop predictive models for effective flange width under lateral loading and also develop load-displacement component models for lateral hysteretic response that incorporates the separate displacement components resulting from flexure, shear and base-slip deformation. Particular emphasis is placed on the asymmetrical strength, stiffness, and ductility characteristics of T-section walls loaded parallel to their web. The experimental studies involve static cyclic load testing of T-section masonry walls and dynamic shake-table testing of T-section and rectangular section walls. The tests are on full-scale elements and are used to verify and calibrate the models developed during theoretical studies. This project is part of the U.S.-Japan Coordinated Program for Masonry Building Research and the Technical Coordinating Committee for Masonry Research (TCCMAR) Program.
