# Mechanical Performance of Confined Autoclaved Fly-Ash-Brick Masonry Walls under Cyclic Loading
## 1 Introduction
[12] proposed wall blocks, which were mainly applied to multi-layer masonry structures and too expensive to be used in single- or bi-layer masonry structures. [PERSON] and [PERSON] et al. [13; 14] proposed new type of concrete horizontal-hole hollow-block masonry. The significance of their study was that it implemented a strength design for a new type of masonry and provided a basis for stress and numerical analyses under uniaxial compression behavior. The aforementioned studies show that a large number of prefabricated wall blocks have been applied to masonry structures. However, few articles presented studies on the seismic performance of a masonry structure that uses precast blocks of a ring beam and a constructional column. With the development in building materials, many energy-saving and environment-friendly materials have been widely used in masonry structures. Among them, the autoclaved fly-ash brick, which is made of lime, fly ash, aggregates, and gypsum [15; 16], is a typical material. As a new material, the autoclaved fly ash, which is widely used and rapidly developed [17; 18], offers outstanding features such as energy-saving, waste-utilization, and low-cost features. Meanwhile, because of the material characteristics, the manufacturing technical requirement of fly-ash bricks is not high. The density of fly-ash bricks is small because of the small fly-ash particles, poor grain composition, and high saturated-water absorptivity. [PERSON] and [PERSON] et al. [19; 20] researched the fly-ash-brick mass loss and strength reduction by experiment. [PERSON] et al. [21] obtained the optimal moisture content of fly-ash-brick masonry. Their work demonstrated that one of the important reasons for the occurrence of cracks in brick masonry was the expansion and contraction of bricks, which were closely related to water absorption and water loss. Many studies on the material performance of fly-ash brick have been performed, but there are few on the application of autoclaved fly-ash bricks in masonry structures; thus, its seismic performance in a masonry structure needs to be studied in depth. To solve the limitations of masonry structures, such as poor seismic performance, complicated construction techniques, and energy wastage, this study proposed and presented the analysis of a new type of autoclaved fly-ash-brick masonry wall restrained by an assembly ring beam and a constructional column. First, two new assembly types of reinforced-concrete blocks were constructed, which can be used both as a wall material and a formwork to meet the requirement of a no-template construction process. Second, an axial compression test of autoclaved fly-ash-brick short columns was carried out to analyze the failure mode and obtain the constitutive parameters of the brick. Meanwhile, a low-cyclic loading test of an assembly using an autoclaved fly-ash-brick masonry wall was carried out in a structural laboratory to prove the correctness of the numerical model. Finally, under multiple influencing parameters, the seismic performance of the assembly of autoclaved fly-ash walls was analyzed by a numerical-simulation method using the bearing capacity, stiffness degradation, and displacement ductility.