Geometry

 

The gables will be constructed in single leaf solid clay brick masonry. Every gable will be in the shape of a isosceles triangle: 6 m long at their base and 3 m high, measured from the centre of the base to the top. The gables will be built in stretcher bond using bricks measuring 230 (l) x 105 (t) x 55 (h) mm. Mortar joints will be 10 mm thick. 

 

Test Setup/ Boundary Conditions

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The gables will be anchored to the shake table through reinforced concrete foundations by means of steel bolts. The bottom section of the gables will lie on a mortar bed-joint resting on this foundation. Truss beams will be hinged at top and bottom to the platforms and will serve to hinge one end of the timber ridge beam and purlins, which are supported at the opposite end on the masonry gables. Doing so, the horizontal  displacements of ridge beam and purlins will be linearly interpolated from the displacements imposed at the two platforms during the loading history. The timber elements will be pocketed in the masonry, without the use of metal anchors or other connectors, and subject to a vertical pre-load of 3 kN at every pocket. This load, representative of the weight of the roof, is applied by means of springs that allow it to remain approximately constant during the performance of the test

 

Input signals

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The interaction of the gable with different roof configurations will be simulated by varying the input motions of the bottom and top platforms of the 9DLAB shake table of EUCENTRE Pavia as described in the submission page. The motions applied at the top and bottom tables can be downloaded in this page.

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Material Characterisation Tests

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The masonry will be characterised for Young’s Modulus in compression, compressive strength and flexural tensile strength of masonry perpendicular to bed-joints, compressive  and flexural strength of mortar, compressive and tensile strength of bricks and initial shear strength and friction coefficient of masonry bed joints under direct. These tests will be performed in compliance with the latest applicable European norms. Additionally, masonry bed-joints will be also characterised under torsional shear.

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