Experimental investigation of clay brick masonry walls strengthened with composite materials under in-plane effect

An experimental program has been carried out to investigate the shear behavior of vertically perforated clay brick masonry wallettes externally strengthened with different composite materials under in-plane effect. For this purpose, ten masonry wallettes were built in the laboratory conditions. A number of ten masonry wallettes including one reference and nine strengthened specimens were tested under diagonal compression to interpret the effectiveness of the implemented structural strengthening systems and configurations which aim to enhance the in-plane shear behavior of masonry wallettes. Three types of strengthening systems which include unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP), bidirectional carbon textile reinforced mortar (CTRM) and bidirectional basalt textile reinforced mortar (BTRM) and three different configurations in each strengthening method were applied on both faces of the wallettes. Test observations, maximum loads, stiffnesses, maximum displacements, dissipated energy, load-displacement curves and failure modes were reported and discussed. Test results indicated that all structural strengthening systems and their configurations increased the maximum load, displacement at maximum load and stiffness of the masonry wallettes. Nevertheless, the structural strengthening method influenced directly the shear strength and displacement capacity of the unreinforced masonry wallettes. Among all the tested specimens, it was determined that CTRM strengthened wallette with full surface overlay application on both faces of the specimen had the best performance in terms of energy dissipation capacity and maximum displacement capacity whereas CFRP strengthened wallette with full surface overlay application on both faces of the specimen had the best performance in terms of maximum load and stiffness.