Flexural and Shear Bond Strength of Sediment Brick Masonry

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental investigation of shear and flexural bond strength of masonry prisms for newly developed sediment masonry bricks. The masonry prisms were constructed in three levels stack-bonded prisms for shear bond strength test and five levels stack-bonded prisms for flexural bond strength test using cement mortar and cement-lime mortar with pre-wetted and dry masonry units. The bond strengths of sediment brick masonry were tested accordance with RILEM TC 127-MS and ASTM E518 for shear and flexural bond strengths respectively. The results were compared to clay brick and cement-sand brick masonry. The results show that pre-wetted sediment brick masonry exhibits higher flexural and shear bond strengths of about 1.5 times and 5 times respectively compared to dry (non-wetted) sediment brick masonry. Using cement-lime mortar in pre-wetted sediment brick masonry leads to increment of the bond strengths and pre-wetting action is essential for sediment brick masonry to prevent failure of shear bond strength.