Behavior of strengthened masonry walls

Abstract EN

Masonry walls are one of the oldest construction methods.

Lots of buildings were built with unreinforced masonry all around the word.

Cracking and failure of un-reinforced masonry walls can be caused by differential settlement, earthquakes, structural deficiencies, and in plane and out of plane loads.

Seismic performance of un-reinforced masonry needs to be studied.

Unreinforced masonry walls exhibit a brittle response to lateral load due to limited tensile and shear strengths and lack of ductility and energy absorption capacity.

Methods of repair and seismic upgrading of these walls are needed.

The main objective of this paper is to study the behavior of un-strengthened and strengthened masonry walls.

The walls are strengthened using glass or carbon fiber reinforced polymers (GFRP or CFRP ).

Three specimens are constructed using clay brick units.

These walls are tested under combined vertical and horizontal loads.

Horizontal displacements at the top of the walls were monitored along with the vertical displacements at the heal and the diagonal displacements.

The ultimate load capacity and the mode of failure were also monitored.

The efficiency of the strengthening techniques was demonstrated via the increase in strength and deformation ability of the walls without increase in their stiffness.