Title: Numerical assessment of movement joint spacing in masonry veneer walls with high-strength steel bed joint reinforcement

Authors: Rutger Vrijdaghs; Yassin Zabbar; Gerhard Vitt; Els Verstrynge

Addresses: Department of Civil Engineering, KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 40, Box 2448, 3001 Leuven, Belgium ' NV Bekaert SA, Bekaertstraat 2, 8550 Zwevegem, Belgium ' Bekaert GmbH, Siemensstrasse 24, 61267 Neu-Anspach, Germany ' Department of Civil Engineering, KU Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 40, Box 2448, 3001 Leuven, Belgium

Abstract: The addition of bed joint reinforcement (BJR) to masonry improves the structural behaviour by limiting crack widths and increasing the post-cracking capacity. However, the design of BJR according to Eurocode 6 does not take into account the material properties, and may lead to uneconomical designs. In this paper, the structural behaviour of reinforced masonry with a truss-type and high-strength wire-type BJR is investigated under thermal contraction loading using macromechanical finite element modelling to compare crack widths in order to assess the design approach of Eurocode 6. Varying wall lengths (12 m, 18 m and 24 m), reinforcements (normal and high strength BJR) and boundary conditions (fixed and sliding) are taken into account. The results show that BJR significantly limits the maximum crack widths by increasing the number of cracks. The simulations show that increased spacing between thermal expansion joints can be allowed beyond the current recommendations of Eurocode 6, optimising the design.

Keywords: macromechanical modelling; thermal contraction; bed joint reinforcement; BJR; reinforced masonry; crack modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMRI.2024.138305

International Journal of Masonry Research and Innovation, 2024 Vol.9 No.3, pp.193 - 216

Received: 25 Feb 2022
Accepted: 13 Jul 2022
Published online: 01 May 2024 *

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