Behavior of masonry walls built with interlocking masonry units under cyclic lateral loading

When buildings are investigated according to their load-bearing systems in Turkey, It is seen that there are many masonry building especially in rural areas. These building system, walls of which are load-bearing wall are considerably affected by earthquakes and they are damaged or collapsed. Consequently, determining behavior of masonry building under external loads, development of new masonry construction techniques and rural renewal become necessary. The main purpose of this study is to increase lateral load-bearing capacities of masonry walls by using interlocking masonry units. For this purpose, in the first chapter, general information related to this study has been given. In the second chapter, properties of materials used in experiments, production and design of interlocking masonry units, test specimens, experimental setups, experiments and analytical studies has been given. Findings obtained from experiments and analytical studies and discussion of these findings are in the third chapter. In the fourth chapter, the main conclusions that can be deduced from the whole of the study have been summarized and some recommendations have been made. The results obtained from the study have shown that the interlocking masonry units designed and produced with foamed concrete within the scope of the thesis increased lateral load-bearing capacity, energy dissipation capacity and stiffness of the masonry walls. This indicates that if these elements are used in the masonry structures to be built in rural areas, the possible loss of life and property due to the earthquake will decrease.