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Strengthening of unreinforced masonry using welded wire mesh and micro-concrete – Behaviour under in-plane action

Kadam, Sachin B. / Singh, Yogendra / Li, Bing

Highlights • Efficacy of a commonly used strengthening method for masonry buildings examined. • Review of earlier studies on in-plane behavior of strengthened masonry presented. • The presented technique is attractive, due to its low cost and ease in application. • Increase up to 7 times in shear strength, and up to 24 times in ductility of URM.

Abstract Unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings constitute a significant part of existing building inventory worldwide. Past earthquakes have shown that these buildings are highly vulnerable to earthquakes. Application of of Ferro-cement (welded wire mesh with micro-concrete/mortar) is one of the commonly used techniques for seismic retrofitting of such buildings. The present experimental study performed on unreinforced brick masonry panels strengthened by Welded Wire Mesh (WWM) and micro-concrete, aims to investigate the efficacy of this technique in enhancing the shear and ductility capacity of masonry. A set of six unreinforced and twelve strengthened panels are subjected to diagonal compression tests. Two different reinforcement configurations, simulating field application, are evaluated. The effect of strengthening on in-plane shear behaviour of URM walls, including failure modes, modulus of rigidity, shear strength, maximum drift, and pseudo ductility, are investigated. The results show that the strengthening using Ferro-cement results in significant enhancement in shear strength and ductility of unreinforced masonry.