ASSESSMENT OF STRENGTH OF THIN-LAYER BRICKWORK AS PART OF COMPOSITE STRUCTURES

Introduction. The evaluation of structure performance on the basis of experimental studies of full-size facade samples exhibits significant advantages over computational models, allowing the deformation scheme in real conditions to be visualized, while taking into account the installation failures of the actual materials.Aim. In this work, the strength characteristics of structures for subsequent use in the calculation and theoretical substantiation of design technical solutions were determined.Materials and methods. The article presents the results of laboratory tests under construction conditions of high-strength brick facing installed on the facades of buildings using metal substructures. Studying life-size facing structures in laboratory conditions using direct destructive methods allowed the strength limits to be determined when constructing niches, along with confirming the necessity to account for chases in thin-layer brickwork.Results. By using characteristic dependencies plotted while processing the obtained data, the structure performance under load was determined, along with the nature of sample destruction and the maximum displacements, at which a loss of the adhesion strength between bricks and mortar in the brickwork joint occurs.Conclusion. Conducting full-scale experimental studies is essential due to the lack of regulatory and technical documents for the design of facing structures for facades considered in the article, as well as the necessity to obtain initial data for calculating the load-bearing capacity of combined facing structures. The test results will be used for assessing the load-bearing capacity of thin-layer brickwork under combined action with metal guides as a part of composite facade structures.