Retrofitting Effect of Unreinforced Masonry Walls Using FRPs

Abstract

Unreinforced masonry buildings have significant portion of existing and historical buildings around the world. Recent earthquakes have shown the needs of seismic retrofitting for these types of buildings. There are many types of retrofitting materials for URM(unreinforced masonry buildings) such as shotcrete, ECC and FRPs. Many engineers use many types of fiber reinforced polymers because these types of material enhance the shear strength of wall without expansion of wall sectional area and additional weight of total structure. However, the complexity of mechanical behavior of masonry shear wall and the lack of experimental data of masonry wall which was retrofitted by FRPs may cause the problem that engineers hard to determine the retrofitting level. Determining and providing the information for retrofitting effect of FRPs for masonry shear wall, this paper investigate in-plane shear behavior of URM and retrofitted masonry shear walls using two types of different FRP materials. Specimens were designed to idealize the wall of low rise apartment which was built in 1970s Korea with no seismic reinforcements and have 1 aspect ratio. Retrofitting materials were carbon FRP and Hybrid sheet which have different elastic modulus and ultimate strain. Consequently, this study will evaluate the structural capacity of masonry shear wall and retrofitting effect of FRP sheet for in plane shear behavior comparing with evaluation method for reinforced concrete beam which was retrofitted by FRPs.