Experimental investigation of progressive instability and collapse of no-tension brickwork pillars

The progressive instability behaviour of compressed dry-stone rectangular pillars loaded with an eccentric load is assessed experimentally and compared with the theory. Photoelastic compression tests were de- signed and executed on polymethyl-methacrylate brickwork pillars to reveal, i) the load-bearing capacity of the structure and the load-lateral displacement relation, ii) the effect of the eccentricity in the stress distribution along the structure, iii) the collapse mode of the system at high eccentricity. By employing a no-tension material model with linear behaviour in compression, new analytical, closed-form expressions for deformed shape of the structure, location of the neutral axis in a generic cross section and axial dis- placement are provided. The photoelastic stress analysis outcome fully confirms the analytical predictions for both low and high eccentricity loadings.




Related paper:

• Gei M. and Misseroni D. (2018).
  Experimental investigation of progressive instability and collapse of no-tension brickwork pillars.
  Internationl Journal of Solids and Structures, in press.
  doi: 10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2018.07.010

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