Determination of a model partial safety factor for unreinforced masonry walls under buckling / Bestimmung eines Modellteilsicherheitsbeiwertes für unbewehrte Mauerwerkswände unter Knickbeanspruchung

The design/verification method in the Eurocodes is based on the partial safety concept. Eurocode 6 suggests a constant partial safety factor for the material &ggr;M for all design/verification problems, without consideration of model uncertainty in the design/verification formula. In the following, a model partial safety factor is determined for the problem of unreinforced masonry walls mainly subjected to vertical loading. For that purpose, the newly proposed formula for EC 6, annex G will be considered [1-3]. In order to cover all aspects in tests and to use the results for design purposes, several methods have been included in EN 1990 Annex D for design based on test data. In this study, the recommended methods in Annex D of EN 1990 for resistance of the material are used to extract the partial safety factors. A database including more than 119 experimental tests on unreinforced masonry shear walls is used to compare the model prediction and the test results and to determine the model partial safety factor.