Influence of transverse loading on the stability of slender unreinforced masonry walls

The buckling behavior of slender unreinforced masonry (URM) walls subjected to axial compression and out-of-plane lateral loads is investigated through an experimental program, where no such test data has been available prior to this study. Using the experimental data, two mathematical models, a finite element model and a linear, elastic buckling solution, are verified and, in turn, are used to validate the experimental results. The finite element model, applicable under various load and restraint conditions, incorporates material and geometric nonlinear analysis of slender URM walls and has the capability of capturing post-cracking and post-buckling behavior of the URM walls. Buckling solutions, proposed by other researchers, validate the highly nonlinear interaction between critical load and out-of-plane bending observed in the experiments. Using the experimental data and the mathematical models, the influence of bending buckling strength is illustrated and axial load eccentricity on buckling strength is illustrated.