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Abstract :
[en] The present study examines the potential use of a new mortarless and modular masonry
system by carrying out its development and performing experimental, numerical, analytical
and practical investigations.
Different forms of interlocking masonry elements have been modelled and optimised. Fullscale masonry walls were assembled and tested under compressive, flexural and shear loads. The overall structural behaviour was compared to conventional masonry systems such as hollow and shuttering blocks. The investigations showed overall high structural performances for the developed dry-stacked elements. The effect of the dry joint interfaces were extensively investigated experimentally and numerically under FE analysis.
Furthermore, a new numerical technique for the determination of stress-percolation in drystacked load-bearing structures has been developed under numerical computing environment, which supports the better understanding of early fissuring in dry-stacked masonry structures. Finally, based on the experimental observations, a numeric-analytical failure mechanism of the dry-stacked masonry structure is proposed under axial and flexural
loading.
The completion of the package of dry-stacked units, consisting of interlocking modular
masonries and an accompanying array of various other precast parts, confirmed the practical
issues and solutions towards the exploitation of the developed dry-stacked elements for the
construction of ready-to-build, modular and load-bearing walls.