Experimental Study on In-plane and Out-of-plane Behavior of Masonry Wallettes Retrofitted by PP-Band Meshes

Abstract

Unreinforced masonry is one of the most popularly used construction materials in the world. It is also unfortunately, the most vulnerable during earthquakes. This combined with the widespread use of masonry in earthquake prone regions of the world has resulted in a large number of casualties due to the collapse of this type of structures. This is a serious problem for the societies. Apparently, its solution is straight forward: retrofitting the existing structures. Several methods have been proposed to improve strength, ductility and energy dissipation capability of masonry structures. However, in developing countries, retrofitting masonry structures should be economic, the retrofitting material, accessible, and the workmanship, locally available. Considering these points, a new retrofitting technique has been proposed based on the use of polypropylene band (PP-band) meshes. PP-band is commonly utilized for packing and it is available all over the world at a very low price. To evaluate the beneficial effects of the proposed PP-band mesh retrofitting method, diagonal compression tests and out-ofplane tests were carried out using masonry wallettes with and without retrofitting.