Mechanical characterization of Tabique Walls through experimental compression tests

The option for substituting timber structures by other materials when renovating old constructions often leads to invasive and less compatible solutions, which are often the cause for more damage. On the contrary, low invasive procedures, such as preservation actions, generate more sustained and respectful interventions, closer to the recommendations expressed in international charts and documents. However, such procedures imply having a good knowledge on the materials (properties and characteristics) and behaviour of the elements (mechanical, static, dynamic, long term, short term.). The present research aims at contributing to this knowledge, by assessing, experimentally, the compression mechanical behaviour of a particular type of timber walls commonly found in old masonry constructions in Portugal and referred to as Tabique Walls; the lack of data on the behaviour of this type of walls is probably the main reason why interventions quite often consider their full substitution by new elements. The work consisted on constructing 8 full scale specimens that were tested at the Laboratory of Earthquake and Structural Engineering (LESE) of the Faculty of Engineering of Porto University (FEUP) to assess the compression strength and behaviour of these elements under no initial damage conditions. The results were also compared to numerical simulations using SAP2000 software.