In-plane shear testing of unreinforced masonry walls and comparison with FEA and NZSEE predictions

The present study was conducted to investigate the global and local in-plane response of perforated URM walls under earthquake loading, based on observations of damage from previous earthquakes. To do so, full-scale cyclic in-plane testing of URM walls with an arched opening which were designed to represent walls in heritage URM structures in Australia was performed. The study investigated the behaviour of both pier and spandrel elements within the walls. Emphasis was also given to the position of walls within a multi-storey building by varying the pre-compression loads (representing gravity loads) on the walls. The tested walls were then simulated using nonlinear finite element analyses (FEA) where simplified micro-modelling (crack-shear-crush) approaches were used to analyse the wall behaviour. Finally, the shear capacities and the failure modes of the walls obtained from the experimental tests and FE analyses were compared to the proposed New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE) predictions.