International Concrete Abstracts Portal

Title: In-Plane Behavior of Unreinforced Masonry Walls Strengthened with Fabric- Reinforced Cementitious Matrix (FRCM)

Author(s): Saman Babaeidarabad and Antonio Nanni

Publication: Special Publication

Volume: 299

Issue:

Appears on pages(s): 1-12

Keywords: fabric-reinforced cementitious matrix; retrofit; shear; strengthening; URM walls

Date: 1/1/2015

Abstract:
Un-reinforced masonry (URM) walls have proven to have low shear strength to withstand in-plane loads caused by earthquakes. Retrofitting masonry walls with novel materials such as fiber-reinforced composites has shown to increase the in-plane shear capacity of the walls and minimize damage by enhancing pseudo-ductility. In this study, a new fabric-reinforced cementitious matrix (FRCM) composite system is applied to URM walls to determine its feasibility as an externally-bonded retrofitting technique. The experimental program consists of testing under diagonal compression a total of 18 wall specimens, made from clay bricks and concrete blocks with two FRCM strengthening reinforcement schemes (one and four plies fabric). The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of FRCM strengthening on improving the shear capacity of masonry walls. Experimental data from other research programs using fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites are presented to demonstrate that when the normalized shear capacity is related to a calibrated reinforcement ratio, the two technologies show similar enhancements.