Study on the Effect of the Bedding Mortar Composition on the Shear and Compression Behavior of Old Brick Masonry Walls

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of the bedding mortar characteristics on the shear and compression behavior of brick masonry walls typical of old buildings. For this purpose, two different mortar compositions were considered, namely a cement mortar and a lime-cement mortar with composition ratios of 1:0:5 and 1:3:12 (ce-ment:hydrated lime:sand), respectively. The initial part of the study consisted of experimentally determining the main mortars’ characteristics. Then, their effect on the shear and compression behavior of solid clay brick masonry was experimentally assessed. For this purpose, di-agonal compression tests and axial compression tests were performed on masonry specimens made with both types of bedding mortars. The results show that the mortar characteristics have a significant influence both on the shear and compressive behavior. The average shear strength values of the cement mortar walls were six times higher than that of the cement-lime mortar walls. The average compressive strength values of the cement mortar walls were two times higher than that of the cement-lime mortar walls. This shows that the mortar characteristics have a greater influence on the shear behavior when com-pared to compressive behavior.