Mechanical Behavior of Brick Masonry in an Acidic Atmospheric Environment

In order to evaluate the deterioration regularity for the mechanical properties of brick masonry due to acid rain corrosion, a series of mechanical property tests for mortars, bricks, shear prisms, and compressive prisms after acid rain corrosion were conducted. The apparent morphology and the compressive strength of the masonry materials (cement mortar, cement-lime mortar, cement-fly ash mortar, and brick), the shear behavior of the masonry, and the compression behavior of the masonry were analyzed. The resistance of acid rain corrosion for the cement-lime mortar prisms was the worst, and the incorporation of fly ash into the cement mortar did not improve the acid rain corrosion resistance. The effect of the acid rain corrosion damage on the mechanical properties for the brick was significant. With an increasing number of acid rain corrosion cycles, the compressive strength of the mortar prisms, and the shear and compressive strengths of the brick masonry first increased and then decreased. The peak stress first increased and then decreased whereas the peak strain gradually increased. The slope of the stress-strain curve for the compression prisms gradually decreased. Furthermore, a mathematical degradation model for the compressive strength of the masonry material (cement mortar, cement-lime mortar, cement-fly ash mortar, and brick), as well as the shear strength attenuation model and the compressive strength attenuation model of brick masonry after acid rain corrosion were proposed.