Experimental research on the seismic behavior of brick walls reinforced with dry-connected steel plate frames

Abstract

Masonry buildings often possess weak earthquake resistance, necessitating improvements in their seismic performance. This paper presents a novel approach to enhance the structural integrity of masonry walls by employing steel frames connected through bolts and welds. Experimental investigations were conducted on one unreinforced brick wall and four reinforced brick walls to examine their seismic behavior. The key parameters considered included the thickness of steel plates (3 mm, 5 mm, and 8 mm) and loading methods (reversed cyclic loading and monotonous loading). The experimental tests revealed that the proposed reinforcement method significantly enhanced the seismic performance of brick walls, particularly in terms of bearing capacity, ductility, and energy dissipation. Increasing the thickness of steel plates effectively improved the ductility of brick walls. The structural failure mode transitioned from shear failure to bending-shear failure due to the constraints introduced by the steel frames. The reinforced walls under reversed cyclic loading and monotonic loading exhibited similar failure modes, and the ductility of structures under monotonic loading was better.