ABSTRACT
Masonry is a building material primarily suited for building structures under compressive load and it is mainly used for vertical load transfer. The decisive characteristic to assess the load bearing capacity of such building members is their compressive strength. The masonry compressive strength depends on a number of parameters. The unit compressive and tensile strength, the joint compressive strength, the ratio of the radical strain coefficients and also the moduli of elasticity of unit and mortar as well as the bond behaviour can be specified as possible primary influencing parameters. Some of these, depend on secondary influencing parameters, such as the suction behaviour of the units and the water retention of the mortars related to the mechanical properties of the joint mortar. The examinations were conducted on high precision calcium silicate masonry units, which are usually used in combination with thin-layer mortar.
