Tests were carried out to investigate the behaviour of two tall, narrow diaphragm walls under varying levels of prestrm and subject to varying magnitudes of lateral loading. The main and primary objective was to evaluate the massive increase in lateral load resistance of such walls, of well over a 100 times, compared to traditional walls of similar cross-sectional area. A number of secondary objectives such as creep, elastic contraction, princbal tensile strength, shear lag, and the general behaviour of full-scale plain diaphragm walls, were also examined. It was found that prestressing not only immensely increases brickwork’s bending strength; it also increases the stiffness of elements and changes brickwork behaviour from brittle to ductile. It may not be an exaggeration to state that it is a ’new’ structural material and bears no comparison, structurally, with traditional brickwork.
W.G. Curtin