Strength characteristics of natural stone : eurocode 6 and bs 5628 methods

Abstract EN

This paper is concerned with the establishment of the design basis for natural stone masonry construction in Yemen utilizing Eurocode 6 and BS 5628 approaches.

Both codes provide different approaches for the determination of the masonry characteristic compressive strength based on masonry unit and mortar properties.

However, the provided information may not be enough in regard with natural stone masonry compared to that of clay-brick or concrete-block masonry.

Compression tests were carried out on different types of local stone units and mortars used in load-bearing masonry construction.

Tests were also extended to cover masonry wallettes.

Comparison between the characteristic compressive strengths obtained according to Eurocode 6 and BS 5628 methods was performed, and both strengths were compared to test results of the wallettes.

Stone-unit strength used for comparison represented low, medium and high strengths.

It was found that the EN 772-1 procedures used to obtain normalized strength of the stone unit underestimate the actual strength and consequently the characteristic natural stone masonry strength predicted by Eurocode 6.

In general, it was found that the experimental strengths were greater than strengths predicted by both methods of Eurocode 6 and that the BS 5628 and BS 5628 is less conservative than Eurocode 6.