Analytical and Experimental Investigation of the Behavior of a Rocking Masonry Tuff Wall

In this study, the analytical and experimental dynamic behavior of a rocking masonry tuff wall was investigated. The considered structural element is a wall clamped at the base that starts to behave as a rigid block once the strength of the interface between mortar and brick is exceeded. Therefore, the rocking motion takes place on an irregular base composed of the same block material. The results of free and forced oscillations are presented: the free responses are obtained by applying different initial displacement amplitudes at the top of the wall; and the forced behavior is explored by imposing harmonic input motions by means of a one-direction shaking table. To interpret the dynamic behavior of the wall, the classical rigid block model and a proposed simplified rocking deformable block model are used. The observation of the experimental curves representing the block frequency versus the oscillation amplitude during the free rocking motion suggests that the block does not always behave as a simply rigid block. The Housner model is used to evaluate the restitution coefficient, whereas the rocking deformable block model is used to describe the main dynamic characteristics of the wall. The good agreement between both the free and the forced motion tests and the analytical results provided by the models assures the correctness of the interpretation of the experimented dynamic behavior of masonry tuff walls.