Shear tests on stone masonry walls with metal connectors

Abstract

Many strengthening techniques for masonry structures have been thoroughly investigated in various studies. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of information on the shear effects of metal connectors used in historical masonry structures. This paper presents the investigation of the effectiveness of metal connectors in relation to the shear collapse mechanism of stone masonry walls. A series of 12 stone masonry walls with metal connectors and an unreinforced masonry reference wall were subjected to shear forces. The test parameters were the length and number of clamps (horizontal metal connectors), and number of dowels (vertical metal connectors). The performance of the different metal connector configurations was compared in terms of strength and mechanism of failure. The results clearly show the effectiveness of metal connectors on shear behaviour of stone masonry walls.

Keywords:

• stone masonry
• metal connectors
• dowel
• clamp
• shear strength

Acknowledgements

This study was conducted at the Structural Mechanics Laboratory of Aksaray University. The research was supported by the Scientific Research Projects Coordination Office of Aksaray University through project number: 2012/08.