1 Introduction

The use of masonry as the major structural material in

house-building has maintained its market share but the use
in multi-storey structures has been eclipsed by the greater
use of steel and concrete frames often clad in materials
other than masonry. This is a pity but has been brought
about primarily by changes in health and safety regulations
relating to working practices and the shortage of skilled
bricklayers.
It is well known that brickwork forms an attractive
cladding and that both brickwork and blockwork are
durable sustainable materials with good base thermal and
acoustic insulation and excellent re resistance. Both can
be more economic and faster to build if designed and
detailed by a knowledgeable structural engineer. In their
highly stressed, slender, modern forms, current masonry
structures have no resemblance to previous thick masonry
structures.

1.1 Present Structural Forms

The two most common forms of multi-storey masonry
construction are crosswall and cellular construction (see
Figures 14.13 and 14.37) which can show as much as 10%

reduction in overall construction costs and time, compared

with other materials. Crosswalls are extensively used in
school classroom blocks where one brick thick walls have
been spaced at about 7 m centres. In halls of residence, hotel
bedroom blocks and similar applications, half brick thick
walls have been used spaced at about 3 m centres. These
walls are not only space dividers and the base for acoustic
barriers, but also form the structure and completely eliminate the need for columns and beams.
One of the reasons for the speed of erection mentioned
earlier, is illustrated in Figure 1.1, which demonstrates the
essential simplicity of brickwork and blockwork structures.
A further reason is to be found in the fact that there is a continuous follow on of other trades. Several contractors have
successfully used the spiral method to speed construction,
shown in Figure 1.2, and this is described in some detail in
Chapter 9 (see Figure 9.29).
Useful and economical though they are for a range of applications, both crosswall and cellular construction demand
repetitive oor plans and are therefore not suited to buildings where the oor plans vary or where large exible open
spaces are required.

(9) strike shutter

(6) provide fire

protection

(8) cast column

(5) paint column

(7) erect
scaffolding

(4) plumb and

line column
(2) build wall

(6) erect main

shutter
(5) fix main
reinforcement

(3) erect column

(1) erect
scaffolding

(2) fix splice

plates or other
connections

(4) strike kicker

shutter

(3) cast kicker

(1) stop site work
in vicinity of steel
erection

(2) erect kicker

shutter
(1) fix starter bars

concrete column or wall

masonry wall

Figure 1.1 Speed of erection compared with steel and concrete

steel column

Structural Masonry Designers Manual

and, with the results of diaphragm wall research, it is evident that post-tensioned ns and diaphragms could be built
to an even greater height.

5. follow on trades
start on floor below

4. erect next
lift of masonry

1. erect slab
shutter

3. cast
slab

2. fix
reinforcement

Figure 1.2 Sequence of masonry construction

1.2 Examples of Structural Layout Suiting

Masonry
The masonry spine wall (see Figure 14.36) can be used for
ofce blocks, where precast prestressed concrete oor units
can span up to 8 m onto the corridor walls or spine. Current
thinking in ofce layout is that the depth of space from
a window should be 6 m maximum for natural daylight to
be enjoyed by the user. Coupled with energy costs for lighting and air-conditioning costs, this form of layout has its
advantages. Masonry structures also have a naturally high
thermal mass aiding natural ventilation and reducing the
need for air-conditioning.
Large spaces in multi-storey structures can be achieved
using columns of high strength bricks or blocks supporting
concrete oors. Single-storey wide-span structures such as
sports halls can be achieved by using cavity walls stiffened
with brick piers, diaphragm walls and n walls. Each of
these forms provides the structure, the cladding, the base
insulation and can be erected by the main contractor using
one trade only.
Pier-stiffened cavity walls are economical up to 5 m in
height but, above that, diaphragm and n walls are more
suitable. The diaphragm wall (see Figure 13.1) has proved
very satisfactory in a number of sports halls, gymnasia,
swimming pools, factories, a church, a theatre, and several
mass retaining walls designed by the authors practice.
A diaphragm wall consists of two half-brick leaves separated by a wide cavity stiffened by brick cross-ribs. The
structural action is of a series of I or box sections. The
cladding function is performed by the outer leaf, the insulation by and within the cavity, and the lining by the inner
leaf. Many such buildings have been constructed in the
north-west of England in varying weather conditions.
They have suffered no distress and above all require little
maintenance. Their design was chosen on its economic
advantage.
The n wall (see Figure 13.41), which acts structurally as a
series of connected T sections, has been found to be highly
efcient for tall single-storey structures, and could well
be found useful for multi-storey work particularly for
the column warehouse-type structure. The dramatic visual
effect of n walls can be pleasing. Fin walls readily lend
themselves to post-tensioning. Both post-tensioned brick
ns and diaphragm walls have been built up to 10 m high

Engineers will probably be interested in the simplicity

of diaphragm and n wall design, contractors will welcome
the elimination of sub-contractors and suppliers, and architects will welcome the wide choice of architectural treatments. Clients are likely to be pleased with good-looking
buildings with lower heating costs, and which are durable
and maintenance-free. Some cladding manufacturers proudly guarantee their products for a twenty-year life. Masonry
can be guaranteed for a lot longer life and frequently its
appearance improves with age.

1.3 Reinforced and Post-tensioned Masonry

Brickwork and blockwork, like concrete, have high compressive strength but relatively low tensile resistance. So,
as with concrete, reinforcing and post-tensioning can be
used to carry or relieve the tensile stresses. Reinforced
brickwork has been used in India and Japan since the First
World War and in America since the Second World War.
In Britain reinforced and prestressed masonry is also used
by structural engineers for structures such as retaining
walls, tanks and footbridges.
The authors practice was one of the earlier pioneers of
post-tensioned masonry, particularly in low-rise structures
such as schools and libraries where lateral wind loading
produces excessive bending moments for traditional plain
masonry. More recently the authors practice used a synthetic rope Paral as the prestressing tendon in a footbridge design.
Current health and safety requirements, which limit the
weight of any item that one person can regularly lift manually to 20 kg, have led blockwork manufacturers to produce
a greater range of dense concrete blocks with voids. These
voids can be used to include reinforcing bars for a reinforced masonry structure.

1.4 Arches and Vaults

Whole life costs, sustainability issues and aesthetics have
led to a renewed interest in older structural forms, particularly the arch. Several highway arch bridges have been built
for spans up to 15 m, producing an aesthetically pleasing
form which requires little or no maintenance. The authors
practice was instrumental in the construction of two prestressed at arch pedestrian footbridges at Tring, Herts in
1995. The arches were constructed vertically on site, prestressed and then lifted into place using a crane. This is a
good example of prefabrication (see section 1.6).

1.5 The Robustness of Masonry Structures

Robustness is a requirement that all structural engineers
must consider in their design work. It was previously
implied in many structures which had a cellular form and
in which elements were automatically tied to each other as
a result of construction practice. The partial collapse of a

Introduction
block of ats at Ronan Point in 1968 led to a change in Part
A of The Building Regulations, which required structural
engineers working on certain buildings to consider disproportionate collapse in their design. The requirement of
clients and architects for lighter structures with cladding
systems and open-plan layouts has led to further amendments to the The Building Regulations, Part A. The revised
rules specify tying requirements and the building types
which must now be designed to meet these rules. Careful
design and consideration of these rules should not adversely affect the choice of masonry as a structural material.

1.6 Prefabrication
The recent initiatives in the construction industry such
as Latham, Egan and the current Best Practice initiative
have made construction professionals think more about
the whole practice of building procurement rather than just
the specic requirement of each discipline. Construction is
looked upon as a manufacturing process rather than an
ad hoc process. There is a drive for the use of more prefabricated elements produced under factory conditions with
greater quality control. The structural steelwork industry
and the precast concrete industry already provide this
facility.
The Construction Design and Management (CDM) Regulations impose a duty of care upon a structural engineer to
consider the safe construction and maintenance of any
design proposal. Linking this requirement with the fact that
the majority of fatalities in the construction industry are as
a result of falling from height then the choice of structure
ought to limit the time any person is working at height.
Prefabrication is one way of achieving this. Many multistorey structures are being clad using prefabricated panels
of many materials such as glass, steel sheeting, pvc panels,
to the detriment of masonry, which is a more sustainable
material. Precast masonry panels have been used on structures in the past but this is reducing with the insulation
requirements specied in Part E of The Building Regulations. This is a pity since masonry has an aesthetic quality
which improves with age.

1.7 Future Tradesmen

There is currently a decit of 5% in qualied brick and block
layers within the industry. This is expected to increase to
7% in the short term. Constructions answer may be to use
the factory produced panels described above.

1.8 Engineering Education

At the beginning of the Victorian era, bricks were the
main civil and structural engineering materials. Sir Marc
Brunel used reinforced brick rings for the shafts of the
Blackwall Tunnel. His son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel,
used brick arches of over 100 ft span to bridge the Thames
at Maidenhead. Stephenson carried out research into the
compressive strength of brickwork when he was designing
and building the Conway Bridge. Jesse Hartley made
extensive use of structural brickwork in the construction of
the superb Albert Dock in Liverpool, and Telford did the
same in the elegant modernised St Katherines Dock in
London. The Victorians used bricks to retain canal and railway cutting embankments, for aqueducts, tunnels and
sewer linings, deep manholes and inspection chambers,
road foundations, bridges, warehouses, cotton mills, factories, railway stations, churches, houses every conceivable
type of building and engineering structure.
However, the advent of steel and reinforced concrete, with
their superior tensile and bending strength, marked the
decline of structural brickwork. Engineers adopted the new
materials with great enthusiasm and, since the end of the
nineteenth century, the decrease in the use of structural
brickwork has been so sharp that few, if any, engineering
graduates can truely design in the material.
Many university civil engineering courses do not teach
structural masonry as part of structural design studies.
However as long as graduates are competent in their
understanding of stress, bending theory, slenderness ratio,
reinforced and prestressed material theory and other structural engineering principles, along with an awareness
of construction details that will affect behaviour such as
effective length of struts, then the detailed design should
be learnt in practice. Undergraduate civil engineering
programmes are being required to deliver a much broader
curriculum than in the past and as a result few graduates
can immediately design masonry structures. The graduates
however should be able to produce preliminary designs
for a masonry structure, based on structural engineering
principles.
Using masonry as a solution to a design problem will
require the masonry industry from suppliers, structural
engineers and contractors to rethink their approach to
design and construction and to see the many opportunities
that structural masonry offers clients, users and the general
public.