Curvature Ductility of Reinforced Masonry Walls and Reinforced Concrete Walls

Research conducted in this work proposes an equation to evaluate and compares the curvature ductility of reinforced masonry (RM) and reinforced concrete (RC) walls. The curvature ductilities are measured at varying levels of axial stresses for walls for aspect ratio (l/h) of 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5. The percentage of reinforcement is increased from 0.25% (minimum reinforcement for RC walls as per IS-13920) to 1.00%. The curvature ductilities are evaluated by plotting flexural strength (M) versus curvature (ф) for the walls. The stress–strain curves of masonry, concrete and reinforcing steel are all adopted from existing literature. The compressive strength of masonry and concrete has been chosen as 10 MPa and 25 MPa, respectively. The yield strength of the steel is fixed as 415 MPa. The height and thickness of the wall are 3000 and 230 mm, respectively, and the length of the wall is varied to obtain different aspect ratios. Results obtained from this paper imply due to increase curvature ductility, RM walls provide a better alternative for the construction of structural walls compared to RC walls in regions of significant seismicity.