الفهرس 
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Abstract
The use of reinforced concrete block masonry walls became more
attractive for designers in the past decade for many reasons. Such walls are either
subjected to uniformly distributed or concentrated loads.
In this study a numerical program was performed to investigate the
behaviour of the masonry walls by both the 2-D and 3-D finite element method.
However, the 2-D finite element method was not capable of examining the effect
of all design parameters and in order to achieve a better and accurate
representation for the walls,3-D finite element method was applied. The effects
of the type of loading, holes grouting, area of reinforcing steel, sides boundary
conditions and the load eccentricity on the developed deformations and stresses
was examined.
The behaviour of reinforced masonry walls resting on either a rigid or an
elastic foundation was studied. The effect of having an edge or a middle local gap
of soil underneath the wall was also investigated. Two types of modeling were
examined: while the wall panel was represented by quadratic elements in the 2-D
analysis and eight nodes hexahedral elements in the 3-D analysis, the type of soil
was represented either by Winkler model or by quadratic elements (semi-infinite
half space). Fifty seven models were examined to study the effect of type of soil
and loss of support on masonry wall having different sides boundary conditions
representing intersecting connecting walls as exist in practice. Different sizes of
soil gaps at different locations were also studied.
An experimental program was performed to investigate the behaviour of
reinforced masonry walls resting on either a rigid or an elastic foundation taking
into consideration the different types of soil and different sizes of soil gaps at
different locations. Eighteen masonry wall panels were tested and the results were
compared to those obtained numerically. The comparison proved a reasonable
accuracy and similarity between the results.
It was found that the 2-D finite element method is not accurate when
dealing with concentrated loads. Special care should be taken when an eccentric
load is applied since it causes high tensile and compressive stresses at the two
wall faces. Changing the type of soil underneath the wall had a considerable effect
on the developed vertical deformation. It was also observed that the end gap is
more serious than the middle gap since the corresponding increase in the
deformations and stresses is much higher.
Many conclusions, relations and recommendations which may be useful for
designers were obtained and introduced in the form of tables and curves.