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The material and structural performance of calcium silicate (CS) brick masonry has received relatively little attention in the past, although this material is often used for the construction of low-rise buildings in Central and Northern Europe. Upon the occurrence of induced seismicity in the north of the Netherlands, an extensive testing programme has been conducted since 2014 at Delft University of Technology. The paper presents the outcomes of eight quasi-static cyclic tests performed within this program on CS brick masonry walls under vertical and lateral in-plane loads. Different dimensions, boundary conditions and applied pre-compression loads were considered. Overall, the tests allowed to characterise the in-plane behaviour of CS brick masonry walls. The results confirmed the influence of the shear ratio (i.e. the ratio between the effective height and the length of the wall) on the wall response in terms of prevailing failure mode, initial stiffness, force and deformation capacity, energy dissipation. Besides, the experimental outcomes stressed the difficulty in estimating the effective stiffness and near collapse drift capacity. Additionally, an empirical equation is proposed to predict the peak lateral force. The equation, calibrated against the tests presented in this paper, was validated against an extended dataset of tests performed on CS masonry walls. The equation, which does not need any input of material parameters and is applicable irrespectively of the expected failure mode, can be used to estimate the force capacity of CS masonry walls when no or limited data on the material properties are available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wood has a very high variability compared to other construction materials. Such variability may be more important in the Congo Basin forest, in which hundreds of species are regularly exploited for trading in international markets. Reducing such a variability in construction applications is a major challenge since the characteristic values of strength properties may have penalizing effects on wood. The main objective of this work was to specify the mechanical strength variability of tropical timber species from the Congo Basin. Eighty-nine timber species were considered. Their mechanical properties were derived from small and clear specimen. The first step of the study consisted in identifying the mechanical groups in which the timber species may be assigned, by using the principle of variance's decomposition. In the second step, the Monte-Carlo simulations were used in order to quantify the variability of the strength properties for each species. We found that the strength of the timbers can be organized in six distinct groups. The variability analysis revealed with a more precise information, the potential of the timber species to be assigned simultaneously to several strength categories. Potential applications may concern reliable and interchangeable uses of tropical timber species and a more efficient processing and grading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]