Structural Use of Reinforced Hollow Block Masonry

D. Liu and C. Yang

Senior Engineer, China Northwest Building Design Institute, Xiâ an, P.R.China,
E-mail: zjxby 5261@sohu.com
ABSTRACT
The hollow concrete blocks have been widely used to build the bearing walls of t
he multi-story
buildings, especially in the region lack of clay soil. In order to increase the
aseismic bearing
capacity of the buildings, the reinforced concrete ring-beams are placed at the
levels of each
flooring and 5 to 7 vertical steel bars are inserted into the voids of the hollo
w concrete blocks at
the intersections of the longitudinal walls and transverse walls. Then these ver
tical pockets are
filled with concrete, cement mortar or grout. So that the structural edge elemen
ts have been
created at the intersections of the walls. These vertical elements will confine
all of the masonry
walls and keep its from collapse while the buildings under the actions of the ea
rthquake. For the
medium-rise buildings, in addition to the ring beams and vertical reinforcements
at the
intersections of the walls, two or three horizontal steel bars are laid in the m
ortar of the masonry
with the vertical interval of 0.4m, and one vertical steel bar is placed in the
vertical pocket at the
spacing of 0.4 ~ 0.6 m along all of the load bearing walls.
1. INTRODUCTION
The manufacture of fired clay brick needs a lot of clay soil. In the region lack
of stone or clay
soil, the concrete hollow blocks as masonry units are used to construct the buil
dings instead of
the shaped stone or the fired clay brick. However, the aseismic capacity of the
unreinforced
hollow block masonry wall is very poor. In order to ensure the enough seismic re
liability of the
block masonry structures, the vertical and horizontal reinforcements should be p
laced in the
longitudinal and transverse bearing walls of the buildings located in the areas
of seismic risk.
Reinforcement should located such that it acts compositely with the masonry and
such that it
resists tension and limits crack width. Reinforcements can be introduced into ma
sonry to
provide additional strength and ductility. Bed joint reinforcement may be used t
o provide
ductility, but it should be used with caution when it is required to provide add
itional flexural
strength.
Fourth International Conference of
Earthquake Engineering and Seismology
12-14 May 2003 Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
2. EARTHQUAKE DAMAGES
In recent thirty years there were several severe earthquakes occurred in China I
n these seismic
zones a lot of buildings built with unreinforced hollow concrete block masonry w
ere damaged.
The exterior masonry walls were collapsed or declined out of the plane. The maso
nry solid
walls and the wall branches between the windows or doors were cracked diagonally
.
Degree of the reinforced hollow concrete block masonry structures were more slig
ht. The
declined of the exterior wall out of the plane is prevented, and the diagonal cr
acks on the
masonry walls were very thin. It shows that the effect of the reinforcement laid
in the hollow
block masonry walls is very evident.
3. HOLLOW CONCRETE BLOCK
The gross dimension of the hollow concrete block used as a unit of masonry wall
is 390Ã 190Ã
190 mm, the plane size of its vertical voids is not less than 130Ã 130 mm for conven
ient pouring
of the grout, cement mortar or concrete. Vertical reinforcements can be placed i
n the vertical
pockets resulting from the shape of the units in the longitudinal and transverse
load bearing
walls. Horizontal reinforcement can be placed in the slotted units in which the
vertical webs
have been partially removed.
4. REINFORCEMENTS OF MASONRY WALLS
4.1. Reinforcements at Intersections of Walls
At all of the intersections of the longitudinal walls and the transverse walls f
ive or seven ô12
to ô16 see Figure 1). The combination of these small reinforced concrete columns cr
eate a
strong edge elements. These edge elements united with the reinforced concrete ri
ng-beams at
each flooring can be form the confined skeleton of the block masonry walls. It r
estrains the
masonry walls and prevents the walls from collapse and cracks during the earthqu
ake.
Figure 1. Vertical Reinforcements at the Intersections of Walls
4.2. Vertical Reinforcements in Wall Piers
Wall piers are formed by four hollow concrete blocks, it should carry a heavy lo
ad and it is a
important bearing elements. In order to increase the flexural strength under the
action of the
eccentric load, four vertical steel bars are inserted into four voids of wall pi
ers respectively, and
then the voids are filled with concrete, cement mortar or grout (see Figure 2).
Figure 2. Vertical Reinforcements of Wall Piers
4.3.Vertical Reinforcement Along the Walls
In order to improve the strength and ductility of the hollow concrete block maso
nry multi-story
building, the additional vertical steel bars should be placed in the voids at th
e interval of 400 ~
800 mm along all of the longitudinal and transverse bearing walls (see Figure 3)
.
Figure 3. Vertical Reinforcements Spreaded Evenly Along the Walls
5. RING BEAMS AND HORIZONTAL
5.1. Ring Beams
The reinforced concrete ring beams should be placed at the roof slab level and a
t each floor slab
level. Ring beam is an important and effective aseismic structural element. It a
cts as restrained
members to keep the integrity of the masonry buildings, and it acts as a boundar
y member
around the floor slab to increase the horizontal rigidity of the floor slab. Rin
g beams act also as
the horizontal supports of the tie-columns at the intersections of the exterior
walls and it will
increase the flexural strength of the tie-columns under the push of the wall sec
tors. In the
exterior masonry walls the ring beam is located at the side of the floor slab (s
ee Figure 4a and b),
in the interior masonry walls the ring beam is located beneath the floor slab (s
ee Figure 4c).
Figure 4. Horizontal Reinforced Concrete Belts
5.2. Horizontal Belts
In the seismic risk zone the masonry buildings should possess a high seismic res
istance capacity.
In order to improve the shear strength and ductility of the masonry walls, the h
orizontal
reinforced concrete belts are placed in the walls at the vertical of 500 ~ 1000
mm along all of
the longitudinal and transverse bearing walls (see Figure 5a). The horizontal be
lt is formed by
placing two or three horizontal steel bars in the slot of the cut hollow concret
e blocks (see
Figure 5b) in which the vertical webs have been partially removed (see Figure 5c
).
Figure 5. Horizontal Reinforced Concrete Belts
6. CAVITY WALL
In the frigid zones the cavity wall should be adopted for the exterior wall of t
he buildings in
order to prevent from the cold current and save energy. The cavity wall is forme
d by two walls
separated a distance of 60 ~ 100mm. In the cavity between two walls is filled wi
th temperature
isolating materials (Figure 6).
Figure 6. Construction of Cavity Wall
6.1. Vertical Reinforcements at Intersections of Walls
The cavity wall is composed of the load bearing wall branch and the curtain wall
branch, the
thickness of the cavity between two walls is about 60 mm. The cavity of the wall
is filled with
the temperature-isolated materials. In order to resist the severe earthquake som
e vertical
reinforcements should be placed in the voids of the block units of the load bear
ing wall at the
intersections of the longitudinal wall and the transverse wall (see Figure 7).
Figure 7. Vertical Reinforcements of Cavity Wall
6.2. Reinforced Concrete Ring Beams
For the multi-story masonry buildings located in the seismic zone, the reinforce
d concrete ring
beams should be placed at the levels of roof slab and all of the floor slab. For
the cavity wall
made of hollow concrete blocks the ring beams laid on the load bearing wall bran
ch should be
covered over the curtain wall branch in order to keep the stability of the exter
ior wall branch.
The thickness of the reinforced concrete ring beams is not less than 200 mm, but
the thickness
of the part of the cantilever slab may be 60 mm (see Figure 8). The reinforced c
oncrete beams
on the wall should be poured after the masonry of two wall branches have been la
id.
Figure 8. Ring Beams on the Cavity Wall
7. CONCLUSION
Earthquake damage surveying and structural model experimental results show that
the
multi-story building in reinforced hollow block masonry have a good aseismic pro
perty, its
horizontal bearing capacity and deformability are much greater than the unreinfo
rced block
masonry structures and it is good enough for anti-seismic design.
8. REFERENCES
1. D.H. Liu, C.R. Yang (1996). â Structural Concepts and Systems of Tall Buildingsâ , Chi
a
Building Industrial Press, Beijing.
2. D.H. Liu, C.R. Yang (1998). â Manual of Aseismic Structural Construction of Buildi
ngsâ ,
China Building Industrial Press, Beijing.