ABSTRACT
The use of bed joint reinforcement over openings in brickwork walls or in buildings where settlement is likely has been established practice for many years. The design in these situations has traditionally been based on elastic theory, although now this clearly can, and is, being changed to limit state design. Although the use of bed joint reinforcement to resist lateral loading is also common, there is no single accepted design method. Rules of thumb do exist and, since the development of a method for the design of unreinforced masonry walls subjected to lateral load was published in BS 5628: Part 11 in 1978, designers have often used bed joint reinforcement in walls which could not be justified as unreinforced but where the deficit in load carrying capacity was not too great.
