In educational construction material as well as engineering publications, the corbel angle for significant excess loads, and also for substantial openings, in an ordinary brick wall is usually stipulated as being taken as 60 degrees to the horizontal.
For example:
In the first illustration, the reduced load is spread out, in the second a distributed load is spread out, and in the third, a point load is spread out. There are no buttresses or other "out-of-plane" support. The wall can be imagined as an indefinite length ordinary 100mm thick brick wall.
I've tried to find the source of that 60 degree value, to check when it's applicable and how it's calculated, but I can find nothing whatsoever on the topic. The few mentions online of "corbel angle" are all of a form that just state/assume 60 degrees (with no reasoning). I can't find anything else.
Related to this, when dealing with an opening, which of these is the correct way to use the corbel angle, and why? They can't both be correct, as they contradict, but there doesn't seem to be an obvious reason why the answer should be one rather than the other.
In the first diagram, the reduced weight is treated as causing a reduced load in nearby masonry at 60 degrees outward; in the second the heavier surrounding weight is treated as causing an increased load at 60 degrees inward.
How does the corbel angle actually work in these typical situations, where there is an excess loads + openings at some point in an ordinary brick wall, and how universally appropriate is it to always assume it's 60 degrees in ordinary brick or concrete construction?
