15 th International Brick and Block Masonry Conference Florianópolis – Brazil – 2012 EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF MECHANICAL BEHAVIOR OF LINTELS IN STRUCTURAL MASONRY Rezende, Fabiana Martins de 1 ; Rizzatti, Eduardo 2 ; Mohamad, Gihad 2 ; Roman, Humberto Ramos 3 ; Bastos, Marcos Scherer 4 1 Ms. Candidate, Federal University of Santa Maria, Civil Engineering, fabianamrezende@yahoo.com.br 2 Professor, Federal University of Santa Maria, Civil Engineering Department, edu_rizzatti@yahoo.com.br ; gihad@unipampa.edu.br 3 PhD, Professor, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Civil Engineering Department, humberto@ecv.ufsc.br 4 Fourth-year undergraduate, Federal University of Santa Maria, Civil Engineering, marcosbts@hotmail.com.br This study deals with experimental analysis of lintels in structural masonry walls built with hollow clay blocks. The main purpose of this study is to observe their mechanical behavior, failure mode and deflections, when subjected to concentrated loading. The experimental program was based on reinforced lintels made with structural blocks and horizontal prefabricated bed joint reinforcements, through the use of MURFOR® steel reinforcement. The test results indicate that the failures occurred by the influence of shear stresses, according to compressions on the top of some blocks that could be observed. Keywords: Structural Masonry, Clay Block, Lintel, MURFOR® reinforcement masonry INTRODUCTION With the heating market in construction, the companies of these sectors are seeking options to carry out works fast and economically. One alternative is the structural masonry, construction system in which the walls make up the structure of the building and also perform the functions of conventional sealing elements. The structural concept of the system is based on transferring loads through compressive stress. The existence of tensile stresses in certain parts is permitted with restrictions to specific points of the structure with low values, due to the low tensile strength of the components of the masonry. However, due to the characteristics related to the project design of the building or attached to some components of the system, tensile stresses with significant values occur at certain location, which require the use of steel reinforcement to inhibit the cracks. As an example, in walls provided with openings, the occurrence of tensile stresses in lintels cannot be avoided. Several authors studied the performance of reinforced masonry. In some studies, as Gouveia (2007), Lourenço (2004) and Pfeffermann (2004), is reported the using of a specific reinforcement in the form of an plane lattice, as MURFOR ®, which is patented and quite common in Europe. However, in Brazil, there has been little research related to this type of reinforcement. Therefore, this paper aims to analyze the mechanical behavior of reinforced lintels with MURFOR ® in the horizontal mortar joint, checking failure mode of the test samples and displacement occurred.