EFFECT OF OPENINGS ON THE SHEAR BEHAVIOUR OF MASONRY WALLS

Abstract

In four decades, significant research effort has been made in studying the behaviour of masonry walls. The masonry wall panel is the basic lateral load-carrying element in the load bearing masonry buildings and framed buildings, which use them as infills. Most of the work carried out in India is on the behavior of solid masonry walls, while very little effort has been made to understand the In-Plane shear behaviour of unreinforced masonry walls with openings. In this study, an analytical study is carried out to investigate the effect of openings on URM walls help the process of the design procedures. Fifteen different finite element models of URM are analyzed using code FEM/I to understand the behaviour of masonry wall panels with openings. All the models are single bay single storied with different combinations of doors and windows. The size and placement of openings are made according to the code IS:4326-1993 and the dimensions typically used in ' actual designs. The load carrying mechanism and stress distribution for different models is discussed in detail. FEM/I results are first used to first verify the past experiment results. A discussion is also made on the provisions provided for openings in IS-4326-1993. The analytical results and discussions indicate that the characteristics of URM walls that affect its lateral resistance are significantly influenced by size as well as location of the openings in the wall panel. Strength is one such property, which is more affected by the size of the opening rather than its location in the wall. As a result the strength given by IS:4326 for the URM walls, should be given on the basis of reduction in openings and thus should be delinked with the location wise strength provisions.