Professor Mark Masia

Assessment of the accuracy of the predictive models of ultimate load resistance provisioned in design standards is essential to ensuring a minimum level of safety-in-design is maintained. Failure to apply accurate models may lead to overly conservative and non-economical designs, or structures that are unsafe at their intended ultimate limit state. This paper compares the predictive in-plane shear resistance models specified by the European, Canadian, Australian and U.S. masonry design standards, CSA S304-14 (CSA S304-14: Design of masonry structures. Canadian Standards Association, Mississauga, 2014), AS 3700 (AS3700: Masonry structures, Standards Australia, Sydney, 2018), EN 1996-1-1 (EN1996-1-1: Eurocode 6: design of masonry structures¿Part 1¿1: general rules for reinforced and unreinforced masonry structures, European Committee for Standardization, Brussels, 1996), and TMS 402/602-22 (TMS 402/602-22 Building code requirements and specification for masonry structures, The Masonry Society, Colorado, 2022) to the shear capacities determined experimentally from 72 full-scale cyclic shear tests on fully bedded, unreinforced clay-brick masonry walls. From these comparisons, the predictive capability of these design provisions has been assessed, and the model uncertainty has been derived in probabilistic terms to facilitate future reliability-based investigations.

This paper presents an experimental program in which 16 full-scale clay brick unreinforced masonry walls were constructed and tested under in-plane cyclic shear loading. These walls have been divided into four sets of nominally identical specimens constructed with the same masonry units from the same mortar composition by the same mason and cured for a consistent period of time. The repeatability of these tests allows for the variability of the peak in-plane shear capacities of these wall configurations to be investigated. Furthermore, these tests were supplemented with material characterization tests, examining the tensile, shear, compressive, and elastic properties of the masonry utilized in this study. In addition, assessments of the accuracy of the current Australian standard for masonry design, as well as that of other expressions found in the literature, have been made. The findings of this analysis indicate that the Australian standard maintains significant limitations in its ability to correctly determine the shear capacity and failure mechanism of masonry shear walls. This error is reduced, but not wholly mitigated through the application of the deterministic equations present in the other design guides.

A new earthquake-resistant system for masonry buildings was hypothesised based on utilising Semi-Interlocking Masonry (SIM) panels in Confined masonry (CM) system. This combination was named Confined Semi-Interlocking Masonry (CSIM) and aimed to further improve the seismic performance of confined masonry currently used in buildings. In a CSIM system, walls are intended to resist both gravity and lateral loads, and they simultaneously act as the energy dissipation device for the building. In previous studies, the CSIM system was introduced, and numerical detailed micro and macro models were developed to represent the in-plane behaviour of CSIM. In the current study, the structural capacity, and the seismic performance of CSIM is assessed by performing an experimental in-plane cyclic test on a full-scale CSIM wall. The Digital Image Correlation (DIC) method is employed to observe the crack patterns and the displacement of the wall at different stages of the testing. According to the key findings from the laboratory test, a suitable structural performance with significant values of energy dissipation is attained from the CSIM wall.

This paper focuses on a structural reliability-based assessment of clay brick unreinforced masonry (URM) walls subjected to uniformly distributed out-of-plane loads in one-way vertical bending. Stochastic models combining finite element analysis (FEA) and Monte Carlo simulations (MCS) are used to account for spatial variability of the flexural tensile bond strength when estimating the wall failure loads. The strength of URM walls is known to be influenced by the flexural tensile bond strength, which is subject to high spatial variability as batching, workmanship, and environmental exposure alter the strength of this bond. For this assessment, single skin walls have been considered with bond strength statistics seen in typical construction. The model error statistics available for similar walls are combined with the results of the spatial stochastic FEA and probabilistic load models to determine the reliability index corresponding to the Australian Standard for Masonry Structures AS 3700 design of members in vertical bending. It was found that existing levels of reliability exceed target reliabilities, and the capacity reduction factor can be increased from 0.60 to 0.65 for URM walls in one-way vertical bending while still providing an acceptable level of reliability. A sensitivity analysis showed this finding to be robust.

Corrosion appears to be a very common problem in historical and aged structures with steel ties and anchorages. A potential rapid deterioration of the wall tie due to the corrosion leading to a premature structural failure poses a serious threat to the built heritage infrastructures' safety. This paper describes an overview of the probabilistic failure analysis of the unreinforced masonry (URM) veneer wall system with flexible backup under uniformly distributed out-of-plane loadings. Moreover, a framework is proposed to consider the wall tie corrosion in the stochastic finite element analysis (FEA) while estimating the structural reliability. A probabilistic experimental study where 18 full-scale URM veneer wall systems with theoretically identical geometries and properties were tested under inward and outward lateral loading. Wall failure statistics along with the probabilistic characterisation of veneer wall constituent materials including mortar, wall tie and timber were accomplished. A stochastic computational model was then developed which combines the FEA and Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate the failure progression and system peak load (veneer capacity) while considering the spatial variability of veneer wall material properties. Two scenarios, with and without wall tie corrosion, are considered, and the probabilistic characterisation of the veneer capacities for these scenarios under inward and outward out-of-plane loading is also reported. The model error statistics were combined with the probabilistic load models to determine the reliability index corresponding to the Australian Standard for Masonry Structures AS 3700. Annual reliabilities are compared to target reliabilities recommended by ISO 2394. Capacity reduction factor and design minimum tie strength consideration for corroded wall tie is also discussed.

This paper presents the results of an extensive set of material characterisation tests performed on unreinforced clay brick masonry. The results of these experiments allow for the estimation of relationships between the measured material parameters. This study considers the relationships of flexural tensile bond strength to direct tensile bond strength, flexural to direct tensile strength of fired clay brick masonry units, and flexural tensile to shear bond strength. A mean ratio of flexural tensile bond strength to direct tensile bond strength of 2.06 and a COV of 31.5% were determined. For the flexural to direct tensile strength of fired clay brick masonry units, a mean ratio of 1.29 with a COV of 14.7% was estimated. Finally, considering the ratio of the shear bond to flexural tensile bond strengths, a mean ratio of 1.34 with a COV of 28.4% was found. In addition to these relationships, suitable probabilistic models were determined to describe the relationship between the flexural and direct tensile bond strengths, and the flexural tensile and shear bond strengths. These results may be used in future studies of URM structures, in particular finite element modelling and stochastic analyses of masonry.

This paper presents the results of a probabilistic experimental study into the behaviour of full-scale unreinforced masonry (URM) veneer walls with flexible backup subjected to out-of-plane loading. The actual safety and reliability of the contemporary Australian URM structures are unknown due to the absence of information regarding the probabilistic behaviour of the whole veneer wall system and material characterisation of the wall constituent materials. The study focused on masonry typologies representative of modern URM buildings in the Australian context. In this study, 18 full-scale URM veneer wall systems with theoretically identical geometries and properties were tested under inward and outward out-of-plane loading. For each loading type, one specimen was tested under semi-cyclic loading to check whether the monotonic loading can capture the overall behaviour of the cyclic response. For each mortar batch mixed, bond wrench testing was conducted at the same age as the test for the associated wall constructed using that mix. Batch to batch variabilities were statistically analysed, and probability distributions for flexural tensile strength were established. Lognormal distributions with aggregated means of 0.40 MPa and 0.42 MPa for inward and outward loading, respectively, were estimated for flexural tensile strengths. After the wall tests, all timber studs used to build the veneer walls were tested to evaluate the probabilistic characterisation of timber stiffness. This probabilistic information is essential for a stochastic finite element analysis (FEA) to conduct the reliability analysis. From the wall tests, veneer wall system behaviour was observed and measured until the collapse or 20% post-peak drop of the peak load. Outward loaded specimens exhibited higher variabilities for masonry cracking and system peak load compared to inward loading due to variabilities from materials, testing arrangements and failure mechanism. The true coefficient of variations of system peak loads were calculated as 0.10 and 0.19 for inward and outward loadings, respectively, considering the effect of testing variability.

An important structural component for cavity brick and masonry-veneer construction are wall ties. Typically, they are galvanized steel, sufficiently strong to provide continuity for transmission of direct and shear forces. However, field observations show they are prone to long-term corrosion and this can have serious structural implications under extreme events such as earthquakes. Opportunistic observations show corrosion occurs largely to the internal masonry interface zone even though conventional Code requirements specify corrosion testing for the whole tie. To throw light on the issue electrochemical test for 2 grades of galvanized ties and 316 stainless steels combined with three different mortar compositions are reported. Most severe corrosion occurred at the masonry interface and sometimes within the masonry itself. Structural capacity tests showed galvanized ties performed better than stainless steel ties in lieu of stainless steel R4 class ties presenting significantly greater relative losses of yield strength, ultimate tensile strength and elongation structural capacity compared to R2 low galvanized and R3 heavy galvanized tie classes.

In a masonry veneer wall system, tie strengths and stiffnesses vary randomly and so are not consistent for all ties throughout the wall. To ensure an economical and safe design, this paper uses tie calibration experimental approach in accordance with the standard AS2699.1 to investigate the tie failure load under compression and tension loading. Probabilistic wall tie characterisations are accomplished by estimating the mean, coefficient of variation and characteristic axial compressive and tensile strength from 50 specimens. The displacement across the cavity is recorded, which resulted the complete load versus displacement response. Using the maximum likelihood method, a range of probability distributions are fitted to tie strengths at different displacement histogram data sets, and a best-fitted probability distribution is selected for each case. The inverse cumulative distribution function plots are also used along with the Anderson-Darling test to infer a goodness-of-fit for the probabilistic models. An extensive statistical correlation analysis is also conducted to check the correlation between different tie strengths and associated displacement for both compression and tension loading. Based on the findings, a wall tie constitutive law is proposed to define probabilistic tie behaviour in numerical modelling.

The strength of unreinforced masonry (URM) walls subjected to one-way vertical bending under out-of-plane loading (no pre-compression) is known to be affected by the tensile bond strength. Factors such as batching, workmanship, and environmental exposure alter the strength of this bond, resulting in spatial variability for any URM assembly. In narrow wall panels a single weak joint may dictate the failure load of a masonry wall, whereas for longer walls there is higher potential for weak joints to occur and load redistribution. This paper focuses on a stochastic assessment of clay brick URM walls with spatially variable tensile bond strength subjected to uniformly distributed out-of-plane loads in one-way vertical bending and assessing the effect of wall length on the ultimate failure load. Stochastic computational modelling combining 3D non-linear Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) is used to account for bond strength variability when estimating the walls ultimate failure loads. For this assessment FEA MCS has been applied to a set of existing test data for walls 1, 2, 4, and 10 units long, by ten different masons. Models were also developed to consider walls in the intermediate length range, 7 units long, and walls outside of this range, 15 units long. For each set of simulations the peak pressure and load¿displacement data was extracted and analysed, showing agreement with the results of wall test data. The panel strength is shown to increase with wall length from 1 to 4 units, then stabilize with further length increase. The variability of the failure load is shown to decrease with increasing wall length.

This paper develops a modelling strategy for the finite element analysis of perforated (arched) unreinforced masonry walls subjected to in-plane shear loading. An experimental baseline was used to facilitate an accurate calibration and assessment of the chosen modelling strategy. This study provides the procedure and the results relevant to a stochastic assessment of unreinforced masonry shear walls. These results may be used in future studies of the reliability of these structures and may be applied in the calibration of reliability-based design practices. Utilising a two-dimensional micro-modelling approach, the capacity of a monotonic loading scheme to capture the envelope of a cyclically applied load was examined. It was found that, while the elastic stiffness of the laboratory specimens was overestimated by the finite element models, the peak load and global response was accurately recreated by the monotonically loaded models. Once the applicability of this procedure had been established, a series of spatially variable stochastic finite element analyses were created by considering the stochastic properties of key material parameters. These analyses were able to estimate the mean load resistance of the experimentally tested walls with a greater accuracy than a deterministic model. Furthermore, these analyses produced an accurate estimate of the variability of shear capacity of and the observed damage to the laboratory specimens. Due to the fact that the tested walls failed almost exclusively in a rocking mode, a failure mechanism highly dependent upon the structures' geometry, the variability of the peak strength was minimal. However, the observed damage and presence of some sliding and stepped cracking indicates that the proposed methodology is likely to capture more variable and unstable failure modes in shear walls with a smaller height-to-length ratio or those more highly confined.

In previous research by the authors, the semi-interlocking masonry (SIM) was investigated as infill panels for framed structures and its favourable seismic performance was established through laboratory tests. Confined semi-interlocking masonry (CSIM) is a new application of SIM that aims to enhance earthquake performance of confined masonry buildings. Numerical simulations are performed to estimate the structural capacity of CSIM buildings. Micro and macro-modelling strategies are two major approaches for numerical simulation of masonry buildings. This paper proposes a macro-model for CSIM buildings by using a resettable semi-active damper model to simulate the behaviour of the SIM panel. The hysteretic performance of CSIM walls using the proposed macro-model was compared with the load-displacement pushover curve resulting from the FEA micro-modelling approach. The acceptable match between the responses of CSIM walls obtained from the micro and the macro-model confirmed the capability of the proposed model to capture the capacity of CSIM walls.

The semi interlocking masonry (SIM) system has been developed by the Masonry Research Group at The University of Newcastle, Australia. The main purpose of this system is to enhance the seismic resistance of framed structures with masonry infill panels. In this system, SIM panels dissipate energy during earthquake excitation through the friction on sliding joints between courses of units. A joint project is performed including a series of in-plane and out-of-plane testing programs to evaluate the capacity of SIM panels. The study reported in this paper experimentally investigated the out-of-plane displacement/load capacity of the SIM panel damaged in previous in-plane tests. The experimental results of a full-scale SIM panel made of SIM units with topological and mechanical interlocking units are presented in this paper. The panel is 1,980 mm and 2,025 mm in length and height, respectively. The thickness of the panel is 110 mm with full contact to the frame. The paper also presents the numerical 3D micro modelling of the tested panel using general nonlinear static analysis in two software programs, namely DIANA FEA and ABAQUS. The out-of-plane load and the displaced shapes of the panel are recorded at regular increments and are compared to the numerical results for verification of the numerical models. The results show that the SIM panels have significant out-of-plane load and displacement capacity.

In this work, a non-linear Boundary Element (BE) formulation with damage model is extended for numerical simulation of structural masonry walls. The original formulation was presented by other researchers to investigate the concrete material in 2D stress analysis. The formulation proposal is written in terms of domain strain variables and it is based on the consistent tangent operator. A simple damage model is used to represent the material behavior of masonry components and internal variables and cell discretization of the domain are considered. However, for brick masonry it is necessary to take into account the orthotropy in this type of structure. The orthotropy is considered by expressing a residual elastic tensor as the difference of the orthotropic and the isotropic elastic property tensors. The complete integral formulation, using isotropic fundamental solution, and algebraic procedure are developed.

Semi interlocking masonry (SIM) is an innovative masonry building system which is being developed in the Centre for Infrastructure Performance and Reliability at The University of Newcastle, Australia. It utilizes a special method of interlocking of mortar-less engineered masonry panels made of semi-interlocking masonry (SIM) units which possess significant energy dissipation capacity due to friction on sliding bed joints between units of the panel during a seismic event. This special method of interlocking SIM bricks allows relative sliding of unit courses in-plane of a wall and prevents out-of-plane relative movement of units. Because all bed joints in a SIM panel are sliding joints, SIM panels can withstand large in-plane displacements without damage. To test SIM panels, a special steel frame with pin connections at each corner was designed and built. The arrangement with pin connections allows application of in-plane shear distortion to the panel of up to 120¿mm. The study presented herein focused on the experimental investigation of displacement capacities of three different types of panels (panel with open gap between the steel frame and top of the panel, panel with foam in the gap, panel with grout in the gap) with two types of SIM units. The paper expands significantly from the previously published conference paper and examines the behavior of SIM panels subject to 100¿mm (5% storey drift) cyclic in-plane lateral displacement on six SIM panels. The horizontal and vertical movement of SIM units were recorded using Digital Image Correlation (DIC) every 10¿s over approximately 8¿h of testing. This study reveals that the DIC displacement outputs show good agreement with displacements measured using traditional instrumentation, even at large displacements (up to 100¿mm). The structural performance of the SIM panels is also analyzed and potential joint opening widths are quantified under large displacement by plotting the outputs from DIC results.

An experimental study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of strengthening unreinforced-masonry (URM) shear panels with near surface-mounted (NSM) fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) strips. A total of 23 wall panels (5 URM and 18 reinforced) were subjected to vertical precompression combined with either monotonic or increasing reversing cycles of in-plane lateral displacement under fixed-fixed boundary conditions. Two wall aspect ratios (height/length) and six different reinforcement schemes were tested. The experimental program was designed to produce diagonal cracking in the URM specimens and hence investigate the effectiveness of the various reinforcement schemes in controlling this failure mode. This was achieved for the aspect ratio 1 wall panels. The study revealed that the FRP strengthening was effective in improving the ultimate load, displacement capacity, ductility, and energy dissipation compared with the URM response. For the aspect ratio 0.5 panels, base sliding failures dominated the experimental program, making it difficult to fully assess the effectiveness of the various reinforcing schemes.

The flexural bond strength of unreinforced masonry (URM) is a key material property affecting wall out-of-plane lateral load capacity. It is well known that the unit flexural bond strength (defined here as the flexural strength of the bond between the brick and lower mortar bed joint associated with any given masonry unit (brick)) varies considerably between units, and that this spatial variability might significantly affect the structural performance and reliability of URM walls in flexure. The paper develops a computational method to predict the strength for non-load bearing single skin URM walls subject to one-way vertical bending considering unit-to-unit spatial variability of flexural bond strength. We characterise the probability distributions of wall strength and examine how spatial variability in unit flexural bond strength affects the variability of base cracking load, mid-height cracking load, peak load and behaviour of clay brick URM walls. This is done using 3-D non-linear Finite Element Analyses (FEA) and stochastic analysis in the form of Monte Carlo simulations. Varying COVs (0.1, 0.3 and 0.5) of unit flexural bond strength are considered. The mean and variance of wall strength are estimated to show the effect of spatial variability of flexural bond strength on wall strength. The failure modes of the wall are compared to show the significant differences between non-spatial and spatial analyses. © 2013.