Assessment of the characteristics of lime mortar bonded brickwork wallettes under monotonic and cyclic compression

Lime mortar bonded brickwork loadbearing walls are widely employed in many colonial period structures around the world; however, most of the research articles on masonry structures refer only to single brick thick walls. With a view to understanding the characteristics of masonry of various bonding patterns and thickness, an experimental programme was carried out that included testing of 42 wallettes under monotonic and cyclic compression. This paper presents datasets of the tested lime mortared masonry wallettes. The 42 masonry wallettes were made with two types of clay bricks and a hydraulic lime mortar. Wallettes consisted of single, double and triple brick thicknesses. The experimental results are presented in terms of compressive strengths, stress-strain curves and deformation characteristics. The difference in thickness was shown not to significantly affect the compressive strength of masonry. Cyclic loading was shown to reduce the compressive strength of masonry wallettes by 9-5% compared to the corresponding monotonic compressive strengths. Responses of cyclic loaded masonry wallettes are presented in terms of the failure pattern, strength, stiffness and stress-strain relationships. Generalised analytical expressions for envelop, common and stability point curves have also been derived from the cyclic stress-strain curves of the wallettes tested. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.