Dattatreya Tripathy, and Vaibhav Singhal
Dattatreya Tripathy, PhD Student, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Patna, Bihar, India, dattatreya.pce17@iitp.ac.in
Vaibhav Singhal, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Patna, Bihar, India, singhal@iitp.ac.in
ABSTRACT
Many post-earthquake survey reports have highlighted the poor seismic performance of unreinforced masonry structures which had resulted in the loss of lives and properties. The seismic
strengthening of these vulnerable structures is important and significant research has been performed on their strengthening using both conventional and modern materials. In this study, welded wire-mesh embedded in the cementitious matrix (WRCM) has been used as external reinforcement for the strengthening of unreinforced masonry walls. This strengthening technique was chosen considering its low-cost, local availability of material and ease in construction. Initially, a detailed experimental study was conducted to evaluate the role of various parameters such as masonry strength, area of wire mesh per unit width and grade of cementitious matrix on the flexural strength of masonry. The experimental study showed that type of cementitious matrix and welded wire mesh can play an important role in contributing to the flexural strength and deformability of the masonry. Further, a database of all existing predictive equations in the
literature has been created. Using these available equations, the flexural strength of strengthened specimens was evaluated and compared with the experimental results. The comparison showed that the available equations did not provide accurate and reliable predictions for the flexural strength of strengthened specimens. The inconsistent predictions by these equations may be
attributed to neglecting the tensile strength of the composite. Lastly, a new equation has been proposed for estimating the flexural strength of masonry strengthened using wire reinforced cementitious matrix. The analytical results showed that the proposed equation was able to provide a better and consistent prediction.
KEYWORDS: welded wire mesh, unreinforced masonry, strengthening, flexural strength
