Effect of slenderness and eccentricity on the strength of concrete block masonry: An experimental investigation

There are a number of factors which govern the strength of masonry, namely strength and elasticity of masonry units and mortar, slenderness ratio of the wall, nature and magnitude of eccentric loads and masonry efficiency. There have been a number of publications on these factors, although many are with respect to brick masonry or masonry used in western countries. This is perhaps the first study in Indian Literature where a detailed study of hollow concrete block walls has been made. Experimental investigations on the masonry walls with two types of hollow blocks for the influences of slenderness ratio and eccentrically loaded walls have been studied in this paper. It is also necessary to observe that full-scale wall strengths have not been studied adequately in the Indian Context. The entire testing program was concentrated on the cellular concrete block and hollow concrete block masonry. The full-scale walls of two different sizes, i.e., 150-mm blocks and 200-mm blocks, were tested for hollow concrete blocks, whereas only 200-mm-thick blocks were tested for cellular concrete blocks. A total of nine walls were tested, out of which five walls were subjected to the axial type of loading, and the remaining four walls were subjected to eccentric loading. The test results confirm the better performance of hollow concrete block masonry as compared to brick masonry wall specimens tested by previous researchers.