1 Professor, Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA and Chairman of the Board, United Consultants for Innovative Building Systems, Cairo, Egypt. hamidaa@drexel.edu
2 Associate Professor, Structural Engineering Department, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. hany.elshafie@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
There is a huge shortage of low-income housing in Egypt. In 2009 the Egyptian government has committed to build 500,000 apartments in the next five years. Use of conventional building systems such as skeleton reinforced concrete frame construction with infilled masonry walls may not satisfy the high demand for shelters in short time. Mortared concrete masonry has been used and cost saving has been achieved due to elimination of exterior plastering and formwork. However, many problems have been encountered in this type of construction due to lack of skilled masons. Azar interlocking concrete masonry has been introduced by Arab Contractors of Egypt to overcome problems encountered in mortared construction. Azar system is 5-8 faster than conventional masonry construction, eliminates the need for exterior plastering and does not required skilled labor. Tests reported in this paper demonstrate that compressive and diagonal tensile strength of fully grouted Azar specimens are comparable with conventional mortared fully grouted masonry. It is therefore concluded that code’s provisions for conventional mortared concrete masonry are equally applicable to fully grouted Azar system. Limitations and recommendations for successful future implementation of this building system are presented.
KEYWORDS: concrete blocks, loadbearing masonry, low-income housing, reinforced concrete masonry, residential construction
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