Comparison of Canadian and U.S. Standard Provisions for Slender Masonry Walls

• Author / Creator

  Bilotta, Miguelangel Jose

• Slender, masonry loadbearing walls made with concrete blocks are one of the most frequently used masonry structural systems in North America. They are commonly found in commercial and industrial single-storey construction, such as warehouses, and in school gymnasiums, auditoriums, and retail buildings.
  Tall, masonry loadbearing walls subjected to out-of-plane (OOP) loads are often governed by flexure, as the shear demands are small compared to the flexural moments they experience. Due to their slenderness, these walls are very susceptible to second-order effects, which translate into additional moment demands caused by the presence of axial loads and the wall deflections. Research has shown that to develop rational design procedures and achieve safe and economical design, an accurate estimation of second-order effects is required.
  Leading provisions in masonry design in North America, such as the ones in the U.S. and Canada, have similarities and differences that warrant investigation and require an assessment to achieve a unified design method.
  This research has several goals: (1) to compare the current strength design and second-order effects provisions for OOP loadbearing masonry walls from North American standards (CSA S304-14 , TMS 402-16 ), with an emphasis on the provisions related with moment amplifications due to second-order moments; (2) to evaluate the influence of different parameters such as reinforcement ratio, slenderness ratio, compressive strength (f_m^') and axial loading, in the flexural rigidity and effective stiffness; (3) to compare the design provisions with numerical models developed using the finite element method; and (4) to conduct regression analyses using a data set developed using the numerical model and proposed expressions for effective stiffness suitable for code inclusion.
  Overall, it is expected that this research will identify the key differences in current design standards and lead to recommendations for further harmonization between the US and Canadian codes.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Structural Engineering
  • Masonry Structure
  • Masonry Stiffness
  • Out of plane design
  • Slender Masonry Walls

• Graduation date

  Spring 2022

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-5p4g-5v93

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.