Investigation of different methods to minimize cracking in masonry walls

Abstract

Masonry is widely used as a construction material for load bearing structures or as infill walls in reinforced concrete skeleton frame structures. Cracking is one of the most common problems in masonry walls. It would be better to take relevant precautions at the construction stage rather than carrying out rectification work after cracks are formed. Laboratory tests were carried out to investigate the effectiveness of five methods that can be used as remedial measures to prevent cracking near the wall openings. Test wall panels would represent the load bearing brick masonry walls with openings. Five different types of wall panels were constructed in this study, namely, walls with normal lintel above the opening, normal lintel above the opening and walls reinforced with hexagonal wire mesh, normal lintel above the opening and walls reinforced with hexagonal plastic mesh, continuous lintel above the opening and both the continuous lintel above the opening with a continuous beam just below the opening. Loads at which cracks propagate were compared. From the test results it was found that many cracks propagated on walls with normal lintels at low load levels. When walls were reinforced with hexagonal wire mesh or plastic mesh, walls could withstand higher loads before cracking. However, from the results it could be clearly seen that walls having both the continuous lintels above the opening and continuous beams below the openings were the most effective method to control cracking in masonry walls compared to all four other remedial measures considered in this study.