Behaviour of English and Flemish bonds under latetal load

For the partitions of the building one cannot ignore bricks due to its lesser cost and flexible use. These walls are subjected to lateral loads induced by wind and inertia load produced by horizontal ground motions during an earthquake. An alternate to reinforced cement concrete water tank is a brick wall water tank, a permanent fixture of every residential house due to negligible water supply from municipal corporation. As a solution to this practical problem an effort has been made to investigate the effect of bond on the strength of brick wall subjected to lateral load. Wall panels have been constructed using English & Flemish bond. On the application of lateral load upto ultimate state the experimental study reveals some good results. Load deflection response indicates a linear relationship upto first crack load. Wall behaves elastically upto first crack, and on further increase in load due to the difference in stiffness of masonry unit and mortar (low tensile bond strength) the crack propagated and at ultimate state crushing took place followed by large central deflections.