Experimental assessment of strengthening strategy to improve the masonry infills out-of-plane behaviour through textile reinforced mortar

Abstract

Throughout the last years, the study of the masonry infill walls out-of-plane behavior is being observed by the scientific community with special attention, mainly due to damages observed during post-earthquake scenarios, where several number of damages and out-of-plane collapses of infill panels were found. Different causes are pointed to justify the seismic vulnerability of these type of elements, most of all related to deficient construction practices, which are nowadays still applicable Based on this motivation, two experimental quasi-static, full-scale, out-ofplane tests were carried out on RC frames that were built and infilled with a thin masonry wall made up of horizontal hollow clay bricks. The first specimen is representative of the enclosure of a typical existing RC building in the Southern countries in its "as-built" condition. The second specimen was strengthened with textile-reinforced mortar using glass fiber mesh. Both specimens were subjected to semi-cyclic (loading-unloading-reloading) history of imposed displacements by means of small pneumatic jacks through a uniform distributed load. Experimental results will be presented and detailed in terms of out-of-plane force-displacement responses and damage evolution. In the end, the results of the tests are compared to assess the effectiveness of the strengthening technique.