The assessment of unreinforced brick masonry structures and infrastructure is a worldwide challenge for the development of resilient urban areas and preservation of historical assets. Among other factors, the estimation of mechanical performance of masonry in existing construction is of importance. However, the characterisation effort does not always satisfy the requirements from structural analyses point of view, i.e. need of elastic, strength and toughness properties, and/or from technical point of view, i.e. use of conventional technical expertise and limited invasiveness. In this respect, the new RILEM Technical Committee CTM aims at promoting the use of tests on masonry cores for the evaluation of compression and shear properties of unreinforced masonry with regular units. Upon a state-of-the-art review, a database of previous experimental test series will be created to identify influencing factors (e.g., core’s geometry, boundary conditions). Selected testing procedures will be compared at various international institutes for a variety of masonry types typically used in existing structures and infrastructure. By comparing results with standardise tests, correction factors will be identified. Eventually, testing guidelines to characterise masonry with core specimens will be defined and shared within the research and engineering community.@en

The shove test (ASTM Standard C1531) is an experimental technique aimed at studying the shear-sliding behavior of brick masonry. It can be executed according to various testing methods that differ in the way the vertical compression load is applied and in the way bricks and/or joints are locally removed for inserting jacks. One of the most critical aspects is the correct evaluation of the compressive stress state on the sliding brick. The objective of the present paper is to investigate the capability of the shove test in determining the shear strength parameters of brick masonries and to highlight the main advantages and disadvantages of the various testing methods. To this aim, nonlinear numerical simulations of the shove test were performed by adopting a brick-to-brick modeling strategy. The 2D numerical model was calibrated and validated through comparisons with experimental results of triplet tests and shove tests. The numerical analyses allowed to understand the influence the different testing methods and the masonry mechanical properties, such as dilatancy, may have on the test results. Based on the numerical outcomes, correction factors were calibrated for the proper evaluation of the compressive stress state on the sliding brick. Improvements with regards to the experimental procedures, i.e. additional test phases and measurements, were also proposed to enhance the results interpretation.

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