Experimental Study on Basic Mechanical Properties of Core-Column Non-mortar Aerated Concrete Block Masonry

Autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) block masonry has been widely used for bearing walls of multi-story buildings or non-bearing walls of high-rise buildings because of its unique advantages, such as lightweight, low pollution output, and excellent thermal insulation performance. However, traditional AAC block masonry has the disadvantages of high water absorption, poor adhesion to mortar, and low construction efficiency. In order to improve the performance of traditional AAC masonry, this paper proposed a new kind of mortar-free AAC block masonry with concrete core-columns. Fundamental mechanical properties of compression and shear were studied. We divided a total of 16 compression specimens into four groups according to different hollow ratios and strength grades of the block, and eight shear specimens into two groups based on different hollow ratios. Each specimen consists of three-layer blocks with two core columns at the point of quadri-section. The diameters of columns were, respectively, 100 mm and 80 mm. The specimens were loaded at a constant speed to evaluate their bearing capacity, displacement response, crack development, and damage state. The formula of the average values and design values of the compressive and shear strength of masonry were obtained statistically. The stress–strain constitutive relation of masonry expressed by a three-stage curve was presented. Furthermore, the result of numerical analysis using the ABAQUS finite element program aligned well with the experimental results. The compressive strength and shear strength of the new type of masonry are no less than traditional AAC masonry, and new masonry has higher construction efficiency and more stable strength.