Reinforced brick wall?
Reinforced brick wall?
(OP)
I saw a set of drawings yesterday where the engineer showed rebar between the brick wythes. Its a 4 wythe brick wall with #4 @ 24" oc. I am not sure if you can reinforce brick wall, I mean basically the rebar will be jammed within the grout so its not going to do any good whatsoever. I am not sure if the intent is to use the rebrar as hold downs (will try to find out today) but rebar within mutliwythe brick wall just seems like a bad idea.
Thoughts please!
Thoughts please!






RE: Reinforced brick wall?
RE: Reinforced brick wall?
http://www.staff.city.ac.uk/earthquakes/MasonryBri...
they seem thought to be good in UK for sites where earthquake solicitations may be relevant.
All this needs to be looked with the ruling code in sight.
RE: Reinforced brick wall?
Since there are many sizes of "brick"? What is the nominal or actual brick unit thickness.
Reinforced brick can be very effective as long as it does not have too many wythes (usually an inner and outer wythe) and a small area for fine grout to bond the reinforcement to the the two wythes so the wall acts as unit and a few pieces of different materials stuck together. The concept of using hollow brick is also valuable.
There are some special brick units that are available that allow reinforcement in the outer wythes plus a narrow "collar joint".
A good engineer can make it work with the constrictions imposed by the material selection that may often be based on exterior appearance.
Dick
Engineer and international traveler interested in construction techniques, problems and proper design.
RE: Reinforced brick wall?
The grout gap between the bricks can't be more then 1 7/8", I can't imagine a rebar getting and sort of bond. I think the engineer is just being conservative.
And is case you are wondering why such a thick wall, it matches the existing 100 year old wall below the roof.
RE: Reinforced brick wall?
RE: Reinforced brick wall?
RE: Reinforced brick wall?
Thats what I think. But I am wondering if it will do more harm. Without enough concrete around, could the rebar corrosion be more problematic in brick?
RE: Reinforced brick wall?
RE: Reinforced brick wall?
Plan dims are 8'x8'. So @ 25 psf wind (no seismic) we are talking about 100 plf line load on the shear wall. Being 4 lines of brick, its heavy enough that there is no overturning.
And thanks for your comment about the vertical reinf. I have never reinforced a brick wall before so I did not know that if its practical especially when the bar is in the grout joint. Your mention of monolithic assembly makes sense to me.
RE: Reinforced brick wall?
RE: Reinforced brick wall?