Comparison and analysis of the seismic performance of windowless and windowed confined masonry walls reinforced with TRC

Abstract

Unreinforced masonry (URM) walls, especially unreinforced masonry walls with windows, have a low level of seismic protection and are prone to collapse during earthquakes. Reinforcement can improve the seismic performance of walls. In addition, some walls can remain in service after an earthquake with repair reinforcement. To investigate the seismic performance of windowless and windowed masonry walls reinforced with textile-reinforced concrete (TRC) and the effectiveness of TRC in restoring the seismic performance of damaged walls, five walls were designed and tested. The following conclusions were drawn: The TRC facing formed a good constraint on the masonry walls and improved their brittle damage characteristics, but it could not compensate for the weakening effect of window openings. Compared with unreinforced walls, TRC-reinforced walls exhibited better postpeak performance, with higher peak loads, ductility, stiffness, energy dissipation, and other seismic performance indicators. The peak load, stiffness and energy dissipation of the windowed walls were less than those of the windowless walls, but the ductility of the windowed walls was better than that of the windowless walls. For the wall that was predamaged to the peak load and subsequently reinforced, the TRC reinforcement restored the stiffness and ductility to the level of intact walls, but it did not restore the load capacity. The shear capacity calculated by the superposition approach accurately predicts the peak loads of TRC-reinforced walls.