Size effect on masonry subjected to out-of-plane loading

Abstract

Size effect is a key aspect of masonry mechanics. This salient feature of quasi-brittle materials, which is mostly governed by the post-peak behavior of masonry and not by the randomness of the material strength, has been adopted in concrete codes but not in the new European code – Eurocode 6. In this paper, theoretical and experimental evidence of size effect in masonry subjected to flexure is presented, demonstrating the need of defining the flexural strength as a function of the width of the masonry wall.