Australian Journal of Structural Engineering

ISSN: 1328-7982 (Print) 2204-2261 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tsen20

Behaviour of thin layer mortared concrete

masonry under combined shear and compression

Julian Ajith Thamboo & Manicka Dhanasekar

To cite this article: Julian Ajith Thamboo & Manicka Dhanasekar (2016) Behaviour of thin layer
mortared concrete masonry under combined shear and compression, Australian Journal of
Structural Engineering, 17:1, 39-52, DOI: 10.1080/13287982.2015.1116181

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13287982.2015.1116181

Published online: 10 Jan 2016.

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Australian Journal of Structural Engineering, 2016
VOL. 17, NO. 1, 39–52
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13287982.2015.1116181

Behaviour of thin layer mortared concrete masonry under combined shear and
compression
Julian Ajith Thamboo and Manicka Dhanasekar
Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

This paper presents experimental studies on the behaviour of a thin layer polymer mortared Received 8 May 2015
concrete masonry under combined shear–compression. Thirty thin layer mortared concrete Accepted 21 August 2015
masonry panels with five bed joint orientations were constructed and tested under vertical KEYWORDS
compression to generate a wide range of compression to shear ratios from zero to infinity at each Thin layer mortared
of the bed joints of the panels. The strength and deformation characteristics are discussed in this concrete masonry; concrete
paper. Unlike the conventional 10 mm thick cement mortared masonry, the thin layer polymer blocks; polymer cement
mortared masonry failed in a combined mechanism involving both the block and the mortar mortar; compressive
in some combination of shear–compression; however, similar to the conventional masonry, its strength; bed joint angle;
strength and deformation were affected by the orientation of the bed joint to the direction of shear-compression
the applied loading. This paper reports a comparative study of the experimental results with a response and digital image
number of shear–compression tests on varied masonry systems reported in the literature; the correlation
thin layer mortared concrete masonry is shown trending towards isotropic behaviour compared
to conventional masonry, which is distinctly orthotropic.

1. Introduction researchers in the past. Hegemier et al. (1978) carried

out a comprehensive series of biaxial tests on full-scale
Masonry walls are subjected to in-plane vertical and
grouted concrete masonry panels and found that the
lateral loads, and hence are in a state of biaxial stress; for
influence of bed joint angle was minimal with the behav-
example, shear walls, infill walls in framed constructions
iour essentially isotropic. Hamid (1978) ­conducted
and walls supported on beams. To predict the detailed
combined shear–compression tests on grouted and
behaviour of these walls, knowledge of the deformation
ungrouted concrete masonry and reported that in the
and failure characteristics of the masonry under
ungrouted masonry the interaction depends only on
combined shear–compression stress, amongst other
the bond strength of the unit-mortar interface and
states of stresses, is required. Several studies have been
hence the masonry was orthotropic as demonstrated
carried out experimentally and numerically on the shear-
by Dhanasekar et al. (1985) through plot of a com-
compression behaviour of diverse masonry shear wall types
plete failure surface in terms of the stresses (calculated
of full-sized and scale-modelled specimens were typically
from the test datasets a series of biaxial tests on half
examined (Citto et al. 2011; Das et al. 2009; Da Porto,
scale solid clay brick masonry) in a reference system
Mosele and Modena 2011; Dhanasekar and Haider 2011;
aligned with the bed joint directions;. Similar conclusion
Minaie et al. 2010). Conventional masonry is a material that
was also reported by Mojsilovic and Marti (1994) and
exhibits distinct directional properties because of the large
Mojsilovic (2005) through the results of combined shear-­
number of embedded weak mortar joints. Masonry is thus
compression tests on concrete, calcium-silicate and clay
regarded as a two-phase material consisting generally of
brick masonry systems.
linear elastic, brittle units bonded by the layers of inelastic,
Binda et al. (2006) reported that the fourteenth-
non-linear mortar joints. Therefore, depending upon the
century My Son temple in Vietnam was constructed
orientation of these layers to the direction of principal
using thin layer glued masonry. The walls of this tem-
stresses, the strength of the masonry differs and its failure
ple were found to have kept their integrity over seven
can occur either in the joints alone or simultaneously in
centuries; this type of construction system is being re-ex-
the joints and units in a combined mechanism.
amined recently prompted by entirely different reason
The conventional masonry containing 10 mm thick
of decline in skilled labour in developed countries as
cement mortar layers subjected to combined shear–
this type of walls could be built by semi-skilled labour
compression loading has been investigated by many

CONTACT  Manicka Dhanasekar  m.dhanasekar@qut.edu.au 

© 2015 Engineers Australia
40    J. A. Thamboo and M. Dhanasekar

through tools assisted, simpler construction methods

(Da Porto et al. 2010; Nicholas et al. 2008). The bond
studies on thin layer mortared concrete masonry con-
ducted by the authors (Thamboo et al. 2013a) revealed
that with the usage of polymer cement mortar (PCM),
bond characteristics of thin layer mortared masonry
could significantly improve relative to the conventional
masonry, in particular the shear and flexural bond
strengths approximately doubled. In some instances,
the high strength bond could lead to the failure of
blocks which is a rare phenomenon in conventional
masonry with distinct interface failure. The thin layers
of the mortar and the higher adhesion are also found to
have contributed to the higher compressive strength of Figure 1.  Masonry assemblage under combined shear and
compression.
masonry due to lower lateral expansion of mortar layers
(Thamboo et al. 2013b). Vermeltfoort (2004) carried out
biaxial tests on thin layer mortared perforated fired clay The applied vertical compressive stress (σy can be)
brick masonry using 630 mm square panels of 93 mm c­ onverted
( to compressive
) and shear stresses 𝜎n & 𝜏np
thick and found that the strength properties of masonry and 𝜎p & 𝜏np along the bed and head joints respec-
were not affected by the orientation of bed joints to the tively using Equations (1)–(3).
loading due to the high bond characteristics that mod-
ified the failure mode from the usual (for conventional 𝜎n = 𝜎y sin2 𝜃 (1)
masonry) orthotropic mode dominated by the interfaces
and joints to the isotropic mode involving failure of units
and mortar.
The current literature on thin layer mortared masonry 𝜎p = 𝜎y cos2 𝜃 (2)
indicates that this form of construction system exhib-
its higher compressive, flexural bond and shear bond
strengths primarily due to higher adhesion compared
to the conventional masonry; its failure is affected by
𝜏np = 𝜎y sin 𝜃 cos 𝜃 (3)
a combined mechanism involving the block, mortar in which θ is the angle of bed joint to the x axis as shown
and interfaces in contrast to the conventional masonry. in Figure 1.
However, the effect of combined stresses to the strength
and deformation of this form of masonry system is not
2.1. Unit
widely available in the literature, especially for hollow
concrete masonry. With a view to bridging this gap, Half-scale blocks of dimensions (185 mm) long (90 mm)
experimental investigation on the behaviour including high (90 mm) thick shown in Figure 2(a) were used in
deformation and failure of thin layer mortared concrete fabrication of test specimens. These blocks were donated
masonry under combined compression and shear was by the Canada Masonry Design Centre. Details of the
carried out. This paper reports the details of the inves- manufacturing of these blocks and their suitability to
tigation and the results. masonry research can be found in Harris and Sabnis
(1999). Previous work on half-scale clay brick conven-
2.  Experimental investigation tional masonry by Dhanasekar et al. (1985) has shown
that the scale effects are negligible, which has been taken
Combined shear and normal stresses on the planes of note in this investigation.
the bed and head joints in masonry play a significant The compressive strength and lateral modulus of
role to its deformation and failure modes; the larger rupture of the concrete units were obtained in accord-
the compressive stress, the larger is the ultimate shear ance to the ASTM C140-03 (2011) and ASTM C67-1
strength in masonry because as a quasi-brittle material, (2011), respectively. The block compression tests were
masonry obeys the Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion. carried out using a servo-hydraulic MTS controller with
From the uniaxial compressive load tests on masonry a double acting actuator with measuring range up to
panels whose bed joints are oriented at different angles 300 kN. The average compressive strength of 18.43 MPa
to the direction of the applied load (Figure 1), the com- was obtained with a coefficient of variation of 6.6%. The
bined shear–compression behaviour of masonry could lateral modulus of rupture test was conducted using end-
be examined (Hamid 1978; Mojsilovic 2005; Mojsilovic to-end epoxy glued three units long beam specimens
and Marti 1994). under four-point bending. The glue provided stronger

90mm
185mm
(a) Half scale block
Figure 2. Half-scale block compression test.
bond and ensured failure of blocks with no interface
delamination. The lateral modulus of rupture of the
blocks was determined as 2.75 MPa with a coefficient
of variation of 10.9%. It should be noted that the lateral
modulus of rupture was approximately 15% of its com-
pressive strength, which is high for concretes.
2.2. Mortar
PCM, a proprietary product of Rockcote Australia Pty
Ltd., was used in the construction of thin layer mortared
masonry test specimens. This mortar was supplied as
dry powder in airtight containers with specified blend
of all ingredients; only water was required to be added
at site. The PCM contained maximum sand aggregate
size of 1 mm to enable construction of 2 mm thick thin
layer mortar joints. The mortar contained 2–4% polymer
by weight. The quantity of water for mortar mixes was
controlled based on the workability. Being proprietary
material, the ingredients of the PCM could not be scaled
down (to half scale) to be consistent with the half scale
Figure 3. Schematic diagram of test arrangement.
Australian Journal of Structural Engineering   41
(b) Block testing
units used in this research. This mismatch is expected to
affect the results conservatively as the seemingly ‘double’
size particles in the PCM could not fill the valleys in the
surfaces of the half scale units and hence could result in
lower bond strength than that which could be achieved
in a full-scale real-world construction where possibly
such filling could be natural. As any error that could
creep-in due to the non-scaling of the ingredients of
the PCM would only reduce the bond strength of the
lab test specimens, no further effort was made to adjust
the scaling mismatch.
The PCM mixes were tested for compressive and
flexural strengths the details of which are presented
in Thamboo et al. (2013a). The average compressive
strength of the PCM was 5.75 MPa and the average flex-
ural strength was 2.98 MPa. It should be seen that the
flexural strength of the PCM is only marginally higher
than the lateral modulus of rupture of the units; this
closeness could lead to failure of either the blocks or
the mortar in cases where delamination failure did not
eventuate.
42    J. A. Thamboo and M. Dhanasekar
Figure 4. Masonry panels for saw-cutting of test specimens.
2.3.  Bond properties
The shear and flexural bond properties of PCM in
thin layer mortared masonry were determined using
the methods proposed in the design standards for
conventional masonry. The mean shear and the
mean flexural bond strengths were determined as
1.5 and 1.35  MPa respectively. Typically, flexural
bond strength of conventional masonry reported in
the literature is found to vary from 0.02 to 1.23 MPa
(Thamboo et al. 2013a), which shows that the mean
flexural bond strength of the conventional masonry
(0.63  MPa) is less than half of that of the PCM
masonry (1.35 MPa).
2.4.  Construction of test specimens
To construct the test specimens with inclined bed joints,
(Figure 3), odd-shaped blocks are essential. Individually
cutting these blocks can be cumbersome. Therefore, suf-
ficiently large panels were constructed and then were cut
to obtain specimens as shown in Figure 4.
For the inclined bed joint angles (22.5°, 45° and
67.5°), larger size panels were required to enable saw
cutting of the panels to safely extract the test specimens.
Saw cutting was performed 14 days after casting by a
specialised contractor and the cutting process was per-
formed with no incidents or breakages. The cutting was
carried with 225 mm diameter diamond edge saw. The
 Australian Journal of Structural Engineering   43

Figure 5. Specimen preparations.

specimen was 90 mm thick, two units wide and five units
high. The process of construction of the panels is shown
in Figure 5.
The panels were left for curing within plastic covers
for 7 days and then the covers were removed to let the
specimens to cure in dry condition until they are tested
(28th day). In a companion study, it was found that
the dry curing was more effective than the continuous
moist curing (ASTM C140-03 2011). The moist cured
triplet specimens exhibited average shear bond strength

Figure 6. Full experimental set-up. (a) Test set-up and (b) LVDT positions.
44    J. A. Thamboo and M. Dhanasekar
of 0.88 MPa whilst the dry cured specimens exhibited
1.22 MPa. This shows that dry curing increase the shear
bond strength by 38% over the moist curing; the coef-
ficient of variation of the dry cured specimen strengths
was also smaller than that of the moist cured specimens.
The reason for the improved curing of specimens under
dry condition is due to the dominance of polymerisa-
tion of the PCM over the hydration of the cemetitious
products. For each of the five categories (Figure 4), six
specimens were tested, resulting in a total of 30 speci-
mens in this investigation.
2.5.  Testing of specimens
Full view of the test setup is shown in Figure 6. The
specimens were aligned between the platens of test-
ing machine carefully to avoid eccentricity in loading.
Further, to avoid any contact between the steel plat-
ens and the surfaces of the masonry specimen, 6 mm
­plywood capping was placed on the face-shells of the
specimens. Full contact between upper and lower sur-
faces of specimens and surfaces of steel plates of testing
machine was ensured.
The tests were performed under displacement con-
trol in order to obtain the complete stress–strain curve
of the specimens. Tests were carried out using a servo-
hydraulic MTS controller with a double-acting actuator
with measuring range up to 300 kN. A 300 kN load cell
was used and the data were recorded using LABVIEW
software. All the tests were carried out at the Queensland
University of Technology Banyo structural testing
laboratory.
3.  Experimental results and discussion
3.1.  Failure modes
Specimens under uniaxial compression perpendicular
to bed joint (0°) failed due to web-shell splitting and
vertical cracking of the face-shells as shown in Figure
7. The web-shells cracked prior to the cracking of the
face-shells; the face-shell cracking occurred at a load
close to 95% of the ultimate load. The early cracking of
Figure 7. 0° specimen failures.
the web shells indicates the presence of bending stresses
caused by the action of deep beam spanning between the
loaded face-shells. During the face shell cracking, mortar
crushing was also observed at the corners of the prisms.
The vertical cracks on face-shell/perpend joints were due
to the different rates of lateral expansion of the units and
mortar under compressive stresses, which caused tensile
splitting of unit and perpend joints.
The 22.5° specimens experienced mixed modes of
failures. Block cracking combined with bed joint sliding
was observed; see Figure 8. Similar to other specimens,
face shell cracking was noticed at around 95% of the total
failure load. In these specimens, there were no noticeable
web-shell cracks.
The 45° specimens failed purely through sliding
along the inclined bed joints. There was no distress to
the blocks. The dominance of shear stress in the 45° ori-
entation is obvious in Figure 9. The failure of the 45°
specimens was more sudden and brittle compared to
the 22.5° specimens.
The 67.5° specimens failed along the inclined bed
joints as shown in Figure 10 due to relatively higher
shear stress and lower normal stress. The joint shear
bond strength in thin layer mortared concrete masonry
is thus the most critical parameter that governs the fail-
ure of this form of masonry.
The 90° specimens failed due to vertical cracking of
bed joints and web-shell splitting as shown in Figure
11. The failures of these specimens were brittle; in most
specimens, cracking appeared suddenly triggering
instantaneous collapse. The vertical cracking of joints
in this orientation was caused due to the tensile bond
stress exceedance.
3.2.  Combined shear–compression strength
The average strength of the test specimens and its corre-
sponding coefficient of variation are presented in Table
1. The strengths were calculated using the face-shell area
of the specimens. The magnitudes of shear and normal
compressive stress were calculated using the Mohr’s cir-
cle stress transformation as per Equations (1)–(3). The

Figure 8. 22.5° specimen failures.
Figure 9. 45° specimen failures
Figure 10. 67.5° specimen failures.
orthotropy of thin layer mortared concrete masonry is
evident from the data in Table 1; strength varies consid-
erably with the change in bed joint angle.
The increased bond strength between the unit and
the mortar compared to conventional masonry was not
sufficient to eliminate the anisotropic failure of the thin
layer mortared masonry considered in this research. A
full elimination of bond/ interface failure would transfer
all risks to the failure of blocks, which can be more brit-
tle; in this sense, a combine failure mechanism achieved
with the current PCM is considered the most optimal as
it provided higher strength whilst retaining non-linear
response due to PCM.
Australian Journal of Structural Engineering   45
The average compressive strength perpendicular
to bed joint (i.e. loading angle 0° to bed joint) was the
highest (10.45 MPa). In this bed joint orientation, the
compressive strength is mainly affected by the block
compression capacity. For the design of masonry struc-
tures under compression, this strength is taken to the
key parameter. The 22.5°, 45° and 67.5° specimens
failed at lower loads compared to the 0° specimens.
For these orientations, the capacity is affected by the
block strength and the shear bond characteristics of the
joints. The strength of the 90° specimens was nearly 20%
less than that of the 0° specimens. With this orienta-
tion, the applied compressive load was resisted by block
46    J. A. Thamboo and M. Dhanasekar

Figure 11. 90° specimen failures.

Table 1. Strength result of compression tests of thin layer mortared concrete masonry.
Average uniax-
Bed joint Number of ial compressive Stress normal to Stress parallel to Shear stress on
orientation Specimens strength, MPa COV (%) bed joint, MPa bed joint, MPa bed joint, MPa
0° 6 10.45 9.77 10.45 0 0
22.5° 5 9.38 9.29 8.00 1.37 3.32
45° 6 7.68 6.79 3.84 3.84 3.84
67.5° 6 7.51 9.54 1.10 6.41 2.65
90° 6 8.28 16.61 0 8.28 0

of failure mode from block/joint cracking failure to com-

pression–shear failure mode.

4.  Deformation of thin layer mortared

Figure 12.  Effect of normal and parallel stresses to the shear
strength.
compressive strength and the tensile interfacial bond
strength. However from the observed failure mode, it
can be said that the joint strength governed the failure of
this orientation due to the early splitting of block-mortar
joint failure. Figure 12 presents the relationship between
the shear stress and normal compressive stress (data in
Table 1) acting at the bed joint at failure.
It can be seen from Figure 12, up to a certain level the
normal compressive stress enhances the shear strength.
The variation of parallel stress with the increase in nor-
mal stress is also shown in the figure. With the lower
level of compressive stress, the shear stress increases up
to 3.84 MPa. However at normal compressive stress lev-
els beyond 4 MPa, which is the 38% of the compressive
capacity, the shear strength decreases with any further
increase in normal stress. It attributes this to the change
concrete masonry
4.1.  Strategies of deformation measurements
Deformation within the specimens was measured using
digital image correlation (DIC) and conventional linear
variable differential transducers (LVDTs). Due to tech-
nical difficulties of fitting three LVDTs, only two LVDTs
were used on each of the specimens. Thus only the ver-
tical and the lateral displacements/strains were meas-
ured as shown in Figure 3. Normally in masonry testing
practice, the recommended gauge length is at least one-
third of the specimen length. Therefore, a gauge length
of 250 mm was used in the LVDT measurements.
For DIC analysis, a digital camera was set up on a
tripod in such a manner it provides good coverage of
the test specimen as shown in Figure 6(a). The camera
shutter was remotely controlled through special pur-
pose software specific to the camera. Fundamentally,
this technique predicts the surface strains, provided
‘particles’ (of specific texture and colour) are identified
clearly by the algorithm, which depends on the quality
of the digital image recorded during the experiment. In
this investigation, digital images (5–7 megapixels) were
taken at 10 s intervals from the start to the end of each
test resulting in a total of 50–75 images and used in the
determination of strains.
 Australian Journal of Structural Engineering   47

Figure 13. Thin layer concrete masonry panel divided into patches and points selected for DIC analysis.

The DIC analysis procedure may be illustrated the points Q1−Q2 (in every successive image from ini-
through a typical example shown in Figure 13. A zone tial undeformed image) were calculated. The points R1
of approximately 180  mm high  ×  225  mm wide was and R2 were used to calculate the diagonal strain along
chosen for the analysis. The selected zone was divided 45° angle.
into 16 × 23 patches, with the size of a typical patch as
50 × 50 pixels. 4.2.  Analysis of wallette strains
Mid points of six patches P1, P2, Q1, Q2, R1 and R2
were selected (refer to Figure 13) to analyse the axial, Since only two LVDTs were used ( on each ) specimen,
( the)
lateral and diagonal strains. In order to calculate the complete state of the strains 𝜀x , 𝜀y , 𝛾xy or 𝜀n , 𝜀p , 𝛾np
axial strain, the vertical coordinate differences between could not be determined. However, these measurements
the points P1–P2 (in every successive image from ini- provided insight into the Young’s modulus and Poisson’s
tial undeformed image) were considered and the axial ratio of masonry. On the other hand, DIC analysis
strains were calculated. Similarly to calculate the lateral provided the versatility to measure strain at different
strain, the horizontal coordinate variations between orientations including vertical (εy) and horizontal (εx)
strains. Therefore, wallette strains at vertical, horizontal
and strain along a 45° line were analyzed through DIC
method. The positions of strains measurements are indi-
cated on Figure 14; the gauge lengths are consistent with
those used for DIC (Figure 13).( )
These three linear strains 𝜀x , 𝜀y , 𝜀45 provided suf-
ficient information
( to
) determine the normal ( and) par-
allel strains 𝜀n & 𝜀p and the shear strain 𝛾np on the
plane of the specimen. The three strains(εn, εp, γnp) at bed
joints were found from the below strain transformation
Equations (4)–(6).
𝜀 x + 𝜀y 𝜀 x − 𝜀y
𝜀p = (1 + sin 2𝜃) − cos 2𝜃 − 𝜀45 sin 2𝜃
2 2
(4)
𝜀 x + 𝜀y 𝜀x − 𝜀y
𝜀n = (1 − sin 2𝜃) − cos 2𝜃 + 𝜀45 sin 2𝜃
2 2
(5)
(𝜀 − 𝜀 ) (𝜀x + 𝜀y )
x y
𝛾np = − sin 2𝜃 + 𝜀45 cos 2𝜃 − cos 2𝜃
Figure 14. Positions of strain measurement on the wallette. 2 2 (6)
48    J. A. Thamboo and M. Dhanasekar

Figure 15. Stress–strain relationship of thin layer mortared concrete masonry panels.

Table 2. Average elastic properties in uniaxial direction.

Specimen Average elastic modulus, MPa COV (%) Poisson’s ratio COV (%) Average shear modulus, MPa COV (%)
0° 5955 10.4 0.28 7.7 2330 10.1
22.5° 5034 10.4 0.28 4.6 1972 9.4
45° 4792 6.7 0.32 10.1 1813 5.3
67.5° 5178 8.4 0.30 6.2 2019 9.2
90° 5580 15.0 0.21 28.5 2314 15.8

4.3.  Axial and lateral deformations of the
wallettes
The stress–strain (axial and lateral) behaviour of thin
layer mortared concrete masonry was determined
from the experimental data and presented in Figure
15. The uniaxial compressive stresses were calculated
from the load data. The corresponding axial and lat-
eral strains were calculated from axial and lateral strain
measurements from LVDTs and DIC analysis. Since the
images were analysed with specific time intervals (not
continuous) DIC plots are not as smooth as the conven-
tional LVDT measurements. However, sufficient infor-
mation can be gathered from this deformation analysis.
Relatively good match of deformation measurement was
found from both methods. Therefore, Non-contact DIC
method can be adopted for measuring deformation of
masonry, which can be cost-effective.
Table 3. Combined shear-compression strength of different masonry.
Bed joint orientations
Masonry type Reference 0° 15° 22.5° 30° 45° 60° 67.5° 75° 90°
Solid or hollow Conventional clay masonry -Dhanasekar et al. (1985) Strength 7.56 – 5.62 – 5.08 – 2.85 – 4.33
masonry f𝜃m fm 1.00 – 0.74 – 0.67 – 0.38 – 0.57
Concrete block prisms –Mojsilovic (2005) Strength(MPa) 12.70 9.40 – 7.30 7.60 5.40 – – –
/ (MPa)

f𝜃m fm 1.00 0.74 – 0.57 0.60 0.43 – – –

Clay brick prisms –Mojsilovic (2005) Strength (MPa) 9.40 7.10 – 5.30 4.00 3.40 – 2.80 3.50
/

fm/bed orientation 1.00 0.76 – 0.56 0.43 0.36 – 0.30 0.37

Calcium Silicate block prisms – Mojsilovic (2005) Strength 10.60 5.50 – 4.40 3.00 1.60 – – 7.50
f𝜃m fm 1.00 0.52 – 0.42 0.28 0.15 – – 0.71
Built clay brick prisms –Heath et al. (2008) Strength 19.71 – – – 5.47 2.62 – – 12.49
/ (MPa)

f𝜃m fm 1.00 – – – 0.28 0.13 – – 0.63

Cut clay brick prisms-Heath et al. (2008) Strength – – – – 6.45 3.38 – – –
/ (MPa)

f𝜃m fm – – – – 0.33 0.17 – – –

Grouted masonry Grouted Concrete block prisms –Hamid (1978) Strength 13.80 8.34 – – 10.06 – – 9.79 12.31
/ (MPa)

f𝜃m fm 1.00 0.66 – – 0.73 – – 0.71 0.89

Concrete prisms Grouted normal –Khattab (1993) Strength 11.10 – 6.50 – 7.80 – 6.30 – 11.50
/ (MPa)

f𝜃m fm 1.00 – 0.59 – 0.70 – 0.57 – 1.04

Concrete prisms Grouted normal and parallel- Khat- Strength 17.00 – 14.00 – 17.30 – 14.50 – 18.80
/ (MPa)

tab (1993) f𝜃m fm 1.00 – 0.82 – 1.02 – 0.85 – 1.11

Grouted concrete block masonry- Heath et al. (2008) Strength 16.12 – 11.05 – 10.61 – 9.87 – 13.7
/ (MPa)

f𝜃m fm 1.00 – 0.69 – 0.66 – 0.61 – 0.85

Thin layer mortared Thin mortar layered clay –Vermeltfoort (2004) Strength 12.90 – 11.30 – 7.90 – 11.70 – 12.30
/ (MPa)

masonry f𝜃m fm 1.00 – 0.88 – 0.61 – 0.91 – 0.95

Thin layer mortared concrete masonry (this paper) Strength 10.45 – 9.38 – 7.68 – 7.51 – 8.28
/ (MPa)

f𝜃m fm 1.0 – 0.90 – 0.73 – 0.72 – 0.79

/ (MPa)
Australian Journal of Structural Engineering 
 49
50    J. A. Thamboo and M. Dhanasekar
Figure 16. Normal, parallel and shear stress–strain plots of thin
layer mortared concrete masonry wallettes.
The axial deformation under compressive load per-
pendicular to bed joint is higher compared to other ori-
entations. This is due to the high deformation capacity
of masonry perpendicular to the bed joint than other
orientations. The compressive load parallel to the bed
joint (90°) showed the lowest deformability when com-
pared to other orientations. This is due to the sudden
shear/tensile separation of masonry interface under load
parallel to the bed joint. The axial strain at failure has
varied between 0.0016 and 0.0023 in thin layer mortared
concrete masonry wallettes tested under uniaxial com-
pression. Similarly, the lateral strain that is the deforma-
tion perpendicular to loading direction varied between
0.0004 and 0.0006.
The displacement controlled compression load-
ing was applied on the wallettes to get the complete
load-­displacement response. However, the softening
branches of uniaxial compression stress to strain were
not obtained in the test results. Except the bed joint
orientation 0°, all other panel orientations were failed
mostly in interface brittle manner. It is also observed
in previous bond tests on thin layer mortared concrete
masonry that the interface failure showed brittle nature,
which could be the reason for the absence of softening
branches in stress–strain responses (brittle failure) of
the face-shell bedded masonry.
The modulus of elasticity was determined using a line
drawn from the origin of the curve to 40% of the meas-
ured maximum stress. This region exhibited reasonable
linear part. The Poisson’s ratio was calculated from the
lateral strain at the same load level. The shear modulus of
thin layer mortared concrete masonry with the specific
bed joint orientation was calculated from basic relation-
ship between the elastic modulus and Poisson’s ratio. The
calculated material parameters are presented in Table 2.
The average elastic modulus of 0° wallette is higher
than the other orientations and 45° panel showed the
lowest average elastic modulus amongst the group. The
average Poisson’s ratio is the highest for 45° and the low-
est for 90° panels. The 45° panels depicted higher average
Poisson’s ratio, because of the interface sliding failures
occurred in the 45° panels. The 90° panel show lowest
average Poisson’s ratio due to the tensile joint brittle fail-
ure nature.
4.4.  Deformation of joints
The normal, parallel and shear stresses were calcu-
lated from the stress transformation from the applied
compressive stress to respective orientation as given
in Equations (1)–(3). Similarly the strain of normal,
parallel and shear to bed joints were calculated from
the Equations (4)–(6). Figure 16 shows plots of normal
strain vs. normal stress, parallel strain vs. parallel stress
and shear strain vs. shear stress; these plots are refer-
enced to the bed joint of thin layer mortared concrete
masonry under five different bed joint orientations and
therefore are considered representative to the deforma-
tion of these joints.
Figure 16(a) shows the normal stress vs. normal strain
variations to different bed joint orientations. The largest
normal strain (0.0023) was developed when the bed joint
was orientated at 0°. With the increase in the bed joint
angle, the normal strain has reduced to 0.00076 (for bed
joint orientation 67.5°), which was the effect of increase
in shear. The slope of the lines onto which these points
lie reduced with the increase in the presence of shear (or
steeper angles of the bed joints).
Figure 16(b) shows the parallel stress vs. parallel
strain plots for different bed joint orientations. The
highest parallel strain occurred in bed joints orientated
90° to the horizontal. The slope of the lines onto which
these points lie, increases with the reduction in shear.
The aberration to this inference is the 22.5° data, which
was possibly a DIC sensitivity error due to very small
strain (movement of particles).

Figure 16(c) presents shear stress vs. shear strain plots
for different bed joint orientations. The shear stress–
strain curve has not displayed any effect of the normal
stresses. The slope of the best fit lines of those points
less than 40% of maximum shear stress is approximately
2000 MPa (2.9 × 105 psi), which corresponds well with
the average shear modulus reported in Table 2. It also
can be noted from Figure 16(c), the ultimate shear strain
at failure is around 0.0013, which is slightly less than the
ultimate shear strain obtained in the shear bond studies
(i.e. without pre-compression).
5.  Combined shear–compression behaviour of
different masonry types: a comparison
Combined shear–compression behaviour of conven-
tional masonry is widely reported in the literature over
several decades; the data from these works are sum-
marised in Table 3, in which, the symbol fm stands for
compressive strength normal (𝜃 = 0◦ ) to bed joint and
fθm represents compressive strength of a panel whose bed
joint is oriented at an angle θ to the direction of loading.
The data include concrete and clay masonry with var-
ied test regimes. The summarised results can be catego-
rised into three types (1) solid or hollow masonry (clay,
concrete and calcium silicate) (2) grouted masonry and
(3) thin layer mortared masonry (clay and concrete).
As the masonry joints act as planes of weakness in
the conventional masonry, they tend to exacerbate the
orthotropic behaviour under different orientations of
bed joints to the direction of loading. It can be seen that
the solid or (hollow )masonry (clay, concrete and con-
crete) show f𝜃m ∕fm ratios in the range of 0.13–0.76,
which is highly orthotropic, representing reduction in
strength (relative to strength normal to bed joint) of up
to 87%. On the other hand, the fully grouted concrete
masonry shows a range of 0.57–1.11, which indicates
reduced orthotropy of maximum reduction 43% (com-
pared to 87% in solid/ hollow masonry). The increase in
strength parallel to bed joint in grouted masonry (ratio
of 1.11, for example) is due to the presence of compres-
sive load normal to the direction of grout. The grouting
thus can be regarded making masonry closer to isotropic
material.
Although ungrouted, the thin layer mortared
masonry (clay or concrete) has shown f𝜃m ∕fm ratios
( )
in the range of 0.61–0.95, which is comparable to the
grouted masonry range of 0.57–1.11. The narrow range
of compressive strength ratios is an indication of the
behaviour of thin layer mortared masonry tending
towards isotropy. The major reason for the narrow
range of compressive strength ratios is the improved
bond strengths between unit and mortar and reduced
mortar joint thickness. From the above discussions, it
can be inferred that further increase of bond strength
could reduce the plane of weakness effect in masonry
and make the behaviour of masonry closer to that
Australian Journal of Structural Engineering   51
of isotropic materials. Complete elimination of the
effect of bed joints will eliminate the non-linearities in
masonry due to bed joint influence and make masonry
an isotropic, brittle material. Such behaviour may not
be highly desirable to structural applications as it would
increase the vulnerability of the end connection designs;
an optimal mortar that minimises the orthotropy, yet
retaining the embedded nonlinear joints in masonry
panels would be desirable.
6. Conclusions
This paper has presented experimental results from the
investigation of thin layer mortared concrete masonry
under combined shear–compression stress states
obtained through compression tests of five different
bed joint orientations. Half-scale hollow concrete blocks
were used for this investigation. Two methods of defor-
mation measurement were adopted in this study. The
compressive strengths, deformation characteristics and
failure modes of thin layer mortared masonry under
shear-compression loading have been presented. The
main conclusions of the present study are as follows:
(1) The failure of thin layer polymer cement
mortared masonry occurred through blocks
or joints depending on the nature of loading
causing varying ratios of shear to compression
in their joints.
(2) The compressive strength perpendicular to
bed joint depicted highest capacity compared
to other bed joint orientations. As the orienta-
tion changes from 0° to 67.5° the compressive
strength reduced from 10.45 MPa to 7.51 MPa,
which is about 40% strength reduction. The
strength of specimens with 90° orientation of
bed joint was affected by early separation of bed
joints under the lateral tensile strains.
(3) The stress–strain plots of thin mortar layered
masonry under compression show that the
behaviour is almost linear elastic up to 85% of
the failure load and thereafter slight nonlinear.
(4) The response of thin mortar layered concrete
masonry is comparable to that of grouted
masonry in terms of its strength relatively less
affected by the orientation of bed joint to the
applied loading direction. The reason for the
behaviour of thin layer mortared masonry tend-
ing towards isotropy is the increase in bond and
reduction in mortar joint thickness.
Notes on contributors
Dr. Julian Ajith Thamboo is a Lecturer at South Eastern
University of Sri Lanka. He obtained his PhD from
Queensland University of Technology and Bachelor of the
Science of Engineering from University of Peradeniya,
52    J. A. Thamboo and M. Dhanasekar
Sri Lanka with first class honours. His research interest
includes structural masonry, innovative construction
materials and dynamic response of structures.
Dr. Manicka Dhanasekar is a Professor of Civil
Engineering at the Queensland University of Technology,
Brisbane. His research interest includes structural
masonry, low cycle fatigue of brittle and ductile materi-
als and railway engineering with emphasis in full scale
experiments and numerical simulations. He has secured
more than $4.5 M research income and has published
200 papers and research reports. He is a registered pro-
fessional engineer in Queensland (RPEQ).
Acknowledgements
The present investigation is part of ongoing research study
to develop thin layer mortared concrete masonry walling
system; the authors thank the Australian Research Council
for the financial support to this project (LP0990514) and
Queensland University of Technology provided technical
support. The assistance from the industry partner Rockcote
for providing the required concrete blocks and the cement
mortar are gratefully acknowledged. The authors also thank
the Canada Masonry Design Centre for providing half scale
blocks for this research study. The support of Concrete
masonry association of Australia (CMAA) and Adbri
Masonry, Stapylton, Queensland is sincerely acknowledged.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Funding
This work was supported by Australian Research Council for
the financial support to this [project number LP0990514] and
Queensland University of Technology provided technical support.
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