Masonry: testing and development of codes

摘要

Professor Edgell of CERAM gave an absorbing and informative presentation covering not only the crucial role of testing in the development of Code of Practice guidance, but also looking at a number of broader areas. He went back to the early use of masonry, pre C19, when the builder was also the designer and possibly also the brickmaker. At this time health and safety was less of an issue and there was an element of learning from mistakes - literally in those cases where a collapse occurred and rebuilding was required. Both the advent of the engineer and the role of testing really date from the C19, with personalities such as Sir Marc Brunei and Colonel Pasley, and subsequently in the C20, when much early work was done in India. Here this early testing related to the use of reinforced brickwork. Examples quoted of the early use of reinforced brickwork included St Jean de Montmartre, with its slender reinforced columns, and another church, in Exeter, which incorporates early use of brick diaphragm walls. Here the diaphragm is formed from crossed ribs rather than the more conventional pattern now seen, and the bricks have four-hole perforations.