EMPIRICAL MASONRY STRENGTH MODELS FOR HISTORIC URM STRUCTURES IN OLD CAIRO
Volume Title: ICASGE2025
Paper ID : 1056-ICASGE-FULL (R1)
Authors
Cairo University
Abstract
Old Cairo, a UNESCO world heritage site, is rich with many structures representing different historic eras including ancient Egyptian, Roman, Coptic, and Islamic. Most of these structures use unreinforced masonry (URM) as the main structural system. Characterizing masonry typology in a certain region has a valuable research value considering the complexity of mechanical response of masonry structures. Moreover, mechanical properties usually govern the in-plane and dynamic behavior of URM structures. Extensive experimental research efforts exist for characterization of masonry walls of different brick types, mortar typologies, and loading conditions. Accordingly, different empirical formulas for masonry wall strength prediction are available in the literature. Various considered parameters include wall width-to-thickness ratio, slenderness ratio, strength of brick and mortar…etc. This led to a significant number of empirical models estimating strength considering different sets of geometric and mechanical variables and yielding a broad spectrum of results. In addition, empirical formulas are available in different standards and regulations leading to variability in estimates. In this study, suitability of material characterization formulas available in Eurocode in addition to empirical formulas proposed in previous studies are assessed considering URM structures in Old Cairo, Mamluk era considering available experimental tests.
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