Importance of reinforcements in masonry building are
- The walls, if constructed with plain masonry would be in capable of resisting the magnitude of horizontal shear and bending forces imposed on them during earthquakes.
- For this reason, in the modern reinforced masonry systems, reinforcing steel is incorporated to resist the shear and tensile stresses, so developed.
- When these walls are subjected to lateral forces acting on them, they behave as flexural members spanning vertically between floors and horizontally between pilasters/ lateral walls.
- Therefore reinforcement in both vertical and horizontal directions is required to be provided to develop resistance against torsion.