Review of Design Provisions for Masonry Structures

Although masonry has been used even in most complex system of constructions with the development of design methods as well as analytical tools to address the needs of designers and professionals, the knowledge about the behavior of masonry and design guidelines to most of the designers is very limited. Different design guidelines developed are based on significant experimental initiatives or instinctive and empirical causes in most cases. This paper presents the current trends with regard to masonry design guidelines provided by various country codes to exercise improvement in the design of masonry structures. It even compares various provisions related to properties of materials to be used and serviceability limits in design of masonry structures.