Experimental determination of statistical parameters associated with uniaxial compression behaviour of brick masonry

In view of practical significance of the compression behaviour of brick masonry, this article discusses the evolvement of an experimental programme based on a survey of the literature. Also, it is known that large scatter is expected in the mechanical properties of masonry and studies characterizing these statistical variations are scant in India. Using the evolved experimental programme and results of tests conducted, the statistical parameters, namely mean and coefficient of variation (COV) associated with the uniaxial compression behaviour of typical brick masonry used in South India have been determined in this article. For the masonry considered in this study, the mean values of peak compressive stress, strain corresponding to peak stress and elastic modulus are 2.82 MPa, 0.009 and 0.4 GPa respectively. The corresponding values of COV are 0.15, 0.2 and 0.12 respectively. In addition, a trilinear curve has been suggested as an idealized stress–strain relation for the brick masonry used in South India.