Empirical estimation of the load bearing capacity of masonry walls under buckling – Critical remarks and a new proposal for the Eurocode 6

• Reviewing the state-of-art of empirical methods for masonry buckling.
• Studying the influence of material parameters on the load bearing capacity.
• Critical remarks have been made on the state-of-art empirical methods.
• A method has been proposed to overcome the existing problems.
• A new formula for the Eurocode 6 has been proposed.

Several empirical formulae were proposed for the practical estimation of the load bearing capacity of masonry walls subjected to concentric or eccentric vertical loading taking into account the slenderness of the wall. In the current contribution, critical remarks were made on the limitations and inconsistency of current empirical methods. The accuracy, shortcomings, and plausibility of the current existing empirical formulae have been intensively studied and compared with a reference numerical solution. It has been found that many of the available empirical methods may give unrealistic results, which lead to an overly conservative design. This can be seen particularly in the regression model-based formulae, which are less based on rational principles like the one in Eurocode 6. To solve this problem, the concept of equivalent elastic modulus has been introduced and a new empirical method has been derived taking into account the nonlinearity of the material. This method gives accurate results in comparison with the reference numerical solution and can fully exploit the considerable reserves of material strength. The new empirical method has been used as a basis to develop a formula for the Eurocode 6. The proposed formula has been showing good fitting with the experimental data.