Design model for dry-stacked and demountable masonry blocks

The construction industry around the world produces a large part of inert wastes mainly coming from building demolitions. Facing to this envi-ronmental challenge and considering the new policy initiatives supporting the designing of sustainable buildings, dry-stacked masonry comes forward as a promising solution since components can be dismantled, saved in a component bank and reassembled on new sites. The speedy growth of the construction industry, the increasing importance given to the complete life cycle of buildings and the evolution of construction technics have led to the development of dry-stacked masonry structures. Mortarless masonry structures minimise skilled labour requirements and improve construction productivity. However, despite these advantages, there are no design standards providing guidelines to assess the load-bearing capacity of dry-stacked masonry block, which therefore limits its use in construction. In an attempt to fill this lack, the current paper investigates the load-bearing capacity of dry-stacked masonry and its influencing parameters. The effects of the geometric imperfections such as height imperfections and bed-joint roughness have been analysed as well as a mitigation strategy. Then, based on experimental evidence, a design method has been proposed for dry-stacked masonry solicited by axial compression. The developed design methodology provided promising results, with 93% of accuracy in the prediction of the dry-stacked masonry’s’ load-bearing capacity.