Investigation of rate dependent shear bond properties of concrete masonry mortar joints under high-rate loading

Many materials including cementitious concrete-type materials undergo material property changes during high-rate loading. There is a wealth of research regarding this phenomenon for concrete in compression and tension. However, there is minimal knowledge about how mortar material used in concrete masonry unit (CMU) construction behaves in high-rate shear loading. A series of experiments was conducted to examine the bond strength of mortar bonded to CMU units under high-rate shear loading. A novel experimental setup using a shock tube and dynamic ram were used to load specially constructed shear triplets in a double lap shear configuration with no pre-compression. The Finite Element Method was leveraged in conjunction with data from the experimental investigation to establish if the shear bond between concrete masonry units and mortar exhibits any rate dependency. An increase in shear bond strength was observed when loaded at a high strain rate. This data indicates that the CMU-mortar bond exhibits a rate dependent strength change and illustrates the need for further study of the CMU-mortar interface characteristics at high strain rates.