Strengthening of masonry walls against out-of-plane loads using cementitious composite materials

Abstract

A total of 17 simply-supported wall specimens including two unstrengthened walls, were tested under a concentrated load over a 100 mm square area or a patch load over 750 mm square area. In this study, the out-of-plane behavior of masonry walls strengthened with an overlay on the tension face using various cementitious composite materials, that is, ferrocement, steel fiber-reinforced ferrocement, steel fiber-reinforced mortar, and hybrid fiber-reinforced mortar, was investigated. Test results indicated a substantial increase in ultimate load-carrying capacity and ductility of the walls due to the overlay. Among the strengthening systems studied, hybrid fiber-reinforced mortar gives the most desirable performance in terms of initial stiffness, ultimate strength, and ductility. In addition, simple analytical models were also developed to predict the ultimate capacity of the strengthened walls.