To investigate the causes of cracks in multistory masonry buildings,the effect of vertical load difference on cracking behaviors was investigated experimentally by testing and measuring the displacements at the testing points of a large sized real masonry U-shaped model. Additionally,the cracking behaviors in U-shaped model were analyzed with shear stress and numerical simulated with ANSYS software. The experimental results show that the deformation increases with the increase of the vertical load. The vertical load results in different deformation between the bearing wall and non-bearing wall,which leads to cracking on the non-bearing wall. The rapid deformation happens at 160 kN and cracks occur firstly at the top section of non-bearing wall near to the bearing wall. New cracks are observed and the previous cracks are enlarged and developed with the increase of vertical load. The maximum crack opening reaches 12 mm,and the non-bearing wall is about to collapse when the vertical load arrives at 380 kN. Theoretical analysis indicates that the shear stress reaches the maximum value at the top section of the non-bearing wall,and thus cracks tend to happen at the top section of the non-bearing wall. Numerical simulation results about the cracking behaviors are in good agreement with experiments results.
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