Title: Structural behaviour of unbonded post-tensioned masonry walls with threaded rods in clay block

Authors: Bregy Choque; Caori Takeuchi

Addresses: Faculty of Civil Engineering, Santo Tomás University, Villavicencio, Meta 500005, Colombia ' Department of Civil and Agricultural Engineering, National University of Colombia, Bogotá D.C., Colombia

Abstract: Masonry is one of the oldest and least expensive construction techniques; however, its fragile failure mode and its low performance to tension stress make it necessary to complement its system with the use of reinforcement steel. In some cases, it is ineffective since the compressive resistance that masonry can resist is wasted, and at this point, it is preferred to use pre-stressing force. In this context, the behaviour of the masonry wall was studied with a given pre-compression before service loads. This study aimed to present the evaluation of a new post-tensioning system in clay block structural masonry through an experimental methodology, in which the characterisation of the materials (mortar, masonry units, aggregates, steel bars) and the characterisation of the masonry (compression walls, diagonal tension, monotonic and cyclic lateral loading) were carried out. It was found that the application of a 5 kN concentric vertical pre-stressing in the masonry significantly increases the in-plane ultimate strength of the wall (5.72 kN-19.88 kN). The hysteresis cycle envelope for the post-tensioned wall showed a ductility (μ = y/max.) of 16.12, which is evidence of adequate ductility for this proposed post-tensioning system.

Keywords: posttensioned masonry; prestressed; clay; numeric model; unbonded pre-stressing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMRI.2025.149798

International Journal of Masonry Research and Innovation, 2025 Vol.10 No.6, pp.557 - 571

Received: 11 Oct 2022
Accepted: 22 Nov 2023
Published online: 13 Nov 2025 *

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