Test program to determine the structural properties of unreinforced hollow clay tile masonry walls at the DOE Oak Ridge plants.

摘要

A recent Department of Energy (DOE) ''General Design Criteria'' has emphasized the importance of determining the adequacy and safety of both new and existing facilities to natural phenomenon hazards. Many of the buildings at the DOE Oak Ridge facilities are constructed with unreinforced masonry hollow clay tile infill walls -- in some cases these walls comprise a substantial part of the lateral force resistance for a building. In order to perform a realistic assessment of the strength of the buildings to seismic events it is important to accurately predict the behavior of these walls. Very little information is currently available on hollow clay tile masonry, its structural properties and behavior. As the in-situ condition of these walls throughout the plants is suspect due to their age and exposure to numerous chemicals, a test program was initiated at the Oak Ridge plants to obtain material properties for use in the natural phenomena hazards analysis. This paper presents the preliminary results of that testing program. The following tests on clay-tile walls, units, and panels were performed: (1) in-situ mortar bed shear strength, (2) compression strength, (3) splitting tensile strength, and (4) diagonal tension (shear) strength of panels which had been removed from existing walls. The testing program is ongoing, is being expanded, and will include not only in-plane tests, but out-of-plane bending testing as well. 11 refs., 3 figs., 5 tabs.