Shear properties of a new type recycled aggregate concrete interlocking hollow block masonry with axial load

Comprehensively considering the positive contribution of energy conservation and the reduction of the construction skill requirement for workers, a new type of interlocking hollow block using recycled aggregates concrete (IHAC) with the compressive strength defined as MU10 was proposed, which could help improve more than 56% of the construction efficiency compared to common used concrete hollow blocks. In order to study the shear properties and promote its application in building engineering, the shear strength of 10 groups (three specimens for each group) of masonries considering different axial stress level and whether or not to use concrete in the grouting holes were studied, and the failure mode as well as the shear strength of the masonries were analyzed. And then, the calculation formulas for predicting the shear strength of the IHAC masonry were obtained by using the parameter fitting method based on the Coulomb failure theory, which could well reflect the parabolic shaped changing characteristic of the shear strength with the increasing of the axial stress, and the maximum difference was within 18% between the calculated and test results.