ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on prefabricated mortar pads and their influence on mechanical properties of masonry compared to a commercial thin layer mortar. Thin layer mortar masonry has been developed - either in connection with heat insulating units to reduce the portion of joints against heat transfer or to increase the compressive strength for load bearing units. In thin layer mortar masonry the deformation modulus perpendicular to the main stress does not play as an important role as it does for normal bed-joint mortar. The shear strength of the commercial thin layer mortar is about 30% larger compared to that of the mortar pad. The scatter for the commercial thin layer mortar is quite high. The bending behaviour of walls with mortar pads and with the commercial thin layer mortar has been investigated according to EN 1052-2 for failure parallel to the bed joint and perpendicular to the bed joint respectively.
