SHEAR STRENGTH OF BRICK WALLS IN IRAN; EVALUATION OF FIELD TEST DATA

In this paper, large amount of data, collected from field tests on brick walls of over 400 unreinforced brick buildings, situated in different parts of Iran, are comparatively analysed to derive at quantitative results regarding the main factors affecting their shear strength. Some of the most important factors investigated include; type of brick units, type of mortar, date of construction and the environmental condition of the location of the building, including humidity and temperature. Results of the statistical evaluation reveal that sharp differences in strength can be seen in such factors as the environmental condition, particularly regarding the level of average annual humidity, and the type of bricks used, whereas, less specific conclusions can be drawn for the average annual temperature level and the age of the building. Since the high differences in shear strength of brick walls constructed in different environmental regions of Iran are well clear in the evaluated data, it is recommended that for assessing the vulnerability of unreinforced brick buildings, regionalization is considered and an appropriate ‘region factor’ is adopted.