Repair of in-plane shear damaged masonry walls with external FRP

Abstract

Extensive damage in a large number of existing masonry buildings during recent earthquakes has shown the need for structural repairing techniques for masonry structures. Externally bonded fibers (FRP) is a retrofitting technique that has been shown that can be used to repair or strengthen reinforced concrete and masonry structures. Masonry walls strengthened with FRP can have large increase in strength, but the effect of the of the presence of damage in the walls at the time of the repair has not been studied. Four full-scale shear-dominant clay brick masonry walls, initially damaged in shear by loading them up to their maximum strength, were repaired using two configurations of externally bonded carbon fiber strips and tested under cyclic shear loading up to failure. It was observed that the maximum strength and deformation capacity, as well as the cracking pattern and failure mode, of the repaired walls was similar to that of undamaged walls that were strengthened with the same reinforcing schemes.