ABSTRACT
77Masonry resists bending loads by working in harmony with reinforcing steel. The masonry carries compression, while the steel carries tension. Because the force resultants are offset from each other, they create a couple that resists bending moments.
The most common bending members in masonry construction are walls and lintels, such as that in Figure 4.1. Walls resist out-of-plane bending from wind, seismic, or blast loads. They also resist in-plane shear forces, also due to wind and seismic forces. Lintels are beams that are integral with the wall. They can be made of reinforced masonry, concrete, or steel, illustrated in Figure 4.2. We will focus our efforts on wall and lintel design in this chapter.
