Chapter 10: Masonry design

Brick and stone masonry is a widely available, low-energy material with good thermal and acoustic insulating properties, and the skills are found all over the world to use them for creating highly practical and often very beautiful buildings. However, the low tensile strength of masonry limits the available ductility, and places reliance on its ability to sustain high compressive stresses during an earthquake. If the compressive strength is low (as is the case, for example, with the earthen bricks known as ‘adobe’) then the consequences in an earthquake have often proved disastrous (Figure 10.1). A significant complicating (but not always adverse) additional factor is that masonry structures are often built by owners or local builders without the involvement of any formally trained engineers.