ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: The behaviour of masonry under axial compression is influenced by the relative stiffness of masonry units and mortar, the thickness of mortar joints and the shape of the units. Therefore it is believed that by reducing the thickness of mortar joints relative to the unit height and increasing the mortar strength to the unit strength ratio, the compressive strength of masonry could be increased. The thin layered masonry construction holds the above mentioned characteristics as a masonry system. This paper presents an experimental study carried out to examine the compressive strength characteristics of thin layered mortared concrete masonry. Masonry prisms and wallettes with different concrete blocks and thin layer mortar were constructed and tested under uniaxial compression. The results of the experimental program were compared with a database of experimental datasets extracted from the past research papers published in journals and conference proceedings. It is found that, on average, the compressive strength of thin layer mortared concrete masonry considered in this research is marginally (13%) higher than that of the conventional masonry and mainly depends on the unit to mortar height ratio. Also the thin layered mortared masonry exhibit lower deformation characteristics than the conventional masonry.
