Experimental Investigation on Masonry with Textile Reinforcement in Thin Bed Joints

Abstract

The application of textile reinforcement can help to increase the load-bearing capacity of masonry building components, especially those subjected to lateral loads caused by wind, earth pressure or earthquake. The reinforcement can be applied externally or be integrated in the bed joint. The key part of an ongoing research project is to investigate the bonding and load-bearing behavior of masonry building components reinforced with textile in thin bed joints with the aim to develop reinforcing elements. With these reinforcing elements for bed joints the construction of basements and higher buildings will be more attractive with masonry. In the first part of the project, the relevant material and bond properties of preselected materials were determined, and a suitable textile was selected. In the second part, four-point bending tests on unreinforced and reinforced masonry wall specimens were carried out in order to investigate the effectiveness of bed joint textile reinforcement to increase the masonry flexural tensile strength. In the third part, a proposal for the design of prototypical reinforcing elements will be worked out. This paper deals with the two first parts of the research project.