Experimental test to evaluate the in-plane flexural behavior of hollow brick masonry walls with horizontal holes

The increased awareness of the poor seismic performance of masonry buildings made of clay hollow bricks with horizontal holes and cement-based mortar, has drawn attention to this masonry typology, which was common practice in the early 1960. In this paper, the in-plane rocking behavior of slender masonry walls is experimentally investigated. The test results confirm that this construction typology performs quite poorly under horizontal loads; a brittle collapse was observed due to the brittle crushing of the pier toe subject to compressive stresses concentration. The brittle collapse mechanism also highlighted the inability of the wall to carry even only the vertical loads once the ultimate in-plane flexural capacity has been reached.