Title: Out-of-Plane Strengthening of URM Walls with Fabric-Reinforced- Cementitious-Matrix (FRCM)

Author(s): Saman Babaeidarabad and Antonio Nanni

Publication: Symposium Paper

Volume: 299

Issue:

Appears on pages(s): 1-12

Keywords: fabric-reinforced cementitious matrix; flexure; masonry walls; out-of-plane loading; retrofit; strengthening

DOI: 10.14359/51688020

Date: 1/1/2015

Abstract:
Masonry as a building technology meets many of the attributes of sustainable construction, thus an economical alternative to demolish-rebuild existing deficient masonry structures is to retrofit them with novel strengthening systems. Current retrofit techniques used to improve flexural capacity of un-reinforced masonry (URM) walls include both internal and external reinforcement with common materials, namely: steel bars, plates, and most recently fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs). However, significant margins exist to advance these rehabilitation systems by addressing economic, technological, and environmental issues. This paper investigates the effectiveness of strengthening URM walls using carbon fabric-reinforced cementitious matrix (FRCM) as a technique to enhance pseudo-ductility and flexural capacity. The paper reports on the results obtained by testing a total of 18 masonry walls made of clay bricks and concrete blocks strengthened with two different FRCM schemes (one and four fabrics) subjected to uniformly distributed out-of-plane loading were tested. Experimental data from other research programs using FRP system are also presented to show that when normalized flexural capacity is related to a calibrated reinforcement ratio, the two technologies provide similar enhancements.