Application of Ordinary Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Layer for In-plane Retrofitting of Unreinforced Masonry Walls: Test and Modeling

Abstract

The masonry walls should have sucient in-plane strength and sti ness to withstand the seismic loads during strong ground shakings. Di erent retro tting techniques have been proposed for improving in-plane behavior of the unreinforced masonry (URM) walls. This study focuses on experimental evaluation and numerical simulation of a simple practical retro tting technique employing Fiber Reinforced Concrete (FRC) surface layer.The simple FRC mix has conventional and available ber, low ber content, ordinary mix design, and applicable construction procedure. E ects of FRC mix properties, including ber type, ber content, and surface layer thickness, on in-plane behavior of masonry panels made up of conventional solid clay bricks are evaluated through experimental study in accordance with ASTM E-519 diagonal tension strength of masonry panels. In addition, a numerical simulation model for this retro tting technique in ABAQUS software is proposedand validated with test results of bare and retro tted panels.