Effects of lateral constraints, geometrical characteristics and pre-compression level on the Drift capacity of Persian historical masonry walls

In most structural codes, the drift capacity of masonry walls is an estimated of the structural behavior and the aspect ratio. In this paper, the determination of the drift capacity considering the effect of parameters such as lateral constraints, geometries, dimensions, and pre-compression for the Persian historic brick masonry was studied. Hence, the behavior of 64 different specimens of masonry walls under in-plane loading with four different modes of lateral constraints (under the effect of lateral walls and ceiling), four different aspect ratios (height to length) and six different boundary conditions (under the effect of lateral walls and ceiling), three values for the wall thickness and two values for the pre-compression (According to the load applied by one or two ceilings) were studied by nonlinear numerical analysis. After preparing the force-displacement curves, in order to obtain simplified parameters that are easily comparable and usable for design purposes, bilinear behaviors were idealized (linear elastic, perfectly plastic). The results showed that by increasing the lateral constraints, wall thickness and pre-compression, the drift capacity of the walls decreased, whilst the drift capacity increases by increasing the height-to-length aspect ratio. In addition, it was observed that the lateral walls (vertical components) were more effective in reducing the displacement capacity than the ceiling (horizontal component). In conclusion, according to numerical calculations, the value of drift capacity for the Persian historic brick masonry was found to be 1.33% to 2.63%.