FAILURE CRITERION AND BEHAVIOR OF BRICKWORK IN BIAXIAL BENDING

The paper describes a novel method for determining the failure criteri on of masonry in biaxial bending. The conventional failure theories ar e not applicable to masonry that exhibits both strength and stiffness orthotropies. The failure criterion has been established from a novel test described in this paper. it appears that the weaker direction cra cks in flexure first, in many cases, and the load is then shed to the stronger direction, Final failure happens only after the stronger dire ction fails in flexure. The cracking and failure in biaxial bending is predicted by the equations given in this paper.