Author(s)

H. Wigger & F.S. Rostasy

Abstract

Many walls -of brick or natural stone- of historic buildings exhibit cracks through the entire thickness of wall. Such cracks are often caused by "historic" and also by recent differential settlement along the base of wall. Thereby, re- straint actions arise in the wall, which are the response to the interaction of the wall with the foundation and ground. In many cases, the causes of historic cracks must be clarified in order to assess the load carrying capacity of the damaged wall and to decide on eventual struc- tural repair. On the other hand, the possibility of future cracks must be known if additional settlement is to be expected, if repair of foundations and consolidation of ground are to be planned etc. F

Keywords