Deformation characteristics of wide spaced reinforced masonry shear walls

Wide spaced reinforced masonry (WSRM) walls subjected to in-plane loading exhibit complex structural behaviour that is not well understood in spite of a few years of investigation in several parts of the world. WSRM walls described in this paper contain only vertical reinforcement with spacing ranging from 800 mm to 2000 mm. With a view to examining the effect of the spacing ratio (defined as the ratio of spacing of vertical reinforcement at the central region to the end region of the wall) of vertical reinforcement, several full-scale, single leaf, clay block WSRM shear walls were constructed and tested under in-plane horizontal and vertical loading at Central Queensland University. This paper presents the deformation characteristics of the eight WSRM shear walls tested under monotonic and cyclic loading. Behaviour of diagonally damaged walls when retested under monotonic loading in the reverse direction is also presented. Deformation characteristics include load - deflection, ductility, and stiffness degradation. It has been shown that WSRM shear walls possess a good level of ductility and do not exhibit rapid stiffness degradation until the ultimate stage. Diagonally damaged walls when retested in the reverse direction, exhibited substantial loss in stiffness, however, their shear capacity was not significantly affected.