Avaliação experimental de solução de reforço para melhoramento do comportamento para fora-do-plano de paredes de enchimento com recurso a reboco armado com rede em fibra de vidro

Abstract

It is widely consensual that further and deeper research is required concerning the out-of-plane seismic response of masonry walls to reduce their vulnerability of such elements and to develop effective retrofit strategies for preventing panel collapse, increasing human life protection and reducing economic losses. Different authors report that the masonry infill walls' out-of-plane behaviour are strongly affected by the following issues: existence or not of connection between the panel and the reinforced concrete frame elements; existence or not of connection between leafs (in case of double-leaf infill walls); inadequate panel' width support (very common constructive procedure adopted for thermal bridges' prevention), boundary conditions, panel slenderness, inadequate construction execution of the last horizontal bed joint and lastly, the existence of previous damage. With this aim, the present manuscript presents the main results of two tests carried out at the Laboratory for Earthquake and Structural Engineering (LESE) of the University of Porto to assess the efficiency of a strengthening solution through textile reinforced mortar (TRM) technique to reduce the infill walls' out-of-plane vulnerability.