Behaviour of masonry wallettes made from a new concrete formulation under compression loads at ambient temperatures: Testing and modelling

• Greater load bearing-capacity for the modified wallettes was observed.
• The imperfection load had a remarkable influence on the numerical results.
• An appropriate penalty scale factor is required for handling the numerical model.
• More brittle behaviour was noted for the modified wallettes.

This paper presents an experimental investigation and analytical simulation which aim to assess the behaviour of a new type of masonry wallette under conditions of an axial compression load at ambient temperature. Two different masonry wallettes were produced using two types of lightweight concrete blocks, the first incorporating expanded clay and the second using by-product materials which consisted of recycled waste glass and metakaolin. Both vertical and lateral deformations were measured at different positions on the wallette specimens. The load-bearing capacity was also determined. The measured results obtained were compared with analytically simulated results produced by the Abaqus/Standard finite element package.The experimental results showed that the maximum axial loads at failure were 474 kN and 558 kN for the reference and modified wallettes respectively implying corresponding bearing capacities of 7.1 MPa and 8.3 MPa. The critical path of the failure mode was similar for all of the wallettes tested and normally began underneath the load point, then passed through the concrete blocks and head joint to reach the wallette toe.The most influential factors on the analytical model are the value of penalty stiffness and imperfect wallette construction. A close agreement between the measured and simulated results has been observed, suggesting that finite element analysis provides a reliable alternative to further laboratory measurements.