• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.237-260
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• 2005

This paper presents an experimental as well as a numerical analysis of the in-plane shear behaviour of hollow, $870{\times}840{\times}100mm$ masonry walls, externally strengthened with FRP composites. The experimental approach is devoted to the evaluation of the effectiveness of different composite strengthening configurations and the methodology consists in the diagonal compression of masonry walls. The numerical study assesses the stress and strain state distribution in the unreinforced and strengthened panels using a commercial finite element code. The effect of FRP reinforcement on the masonry behaviour and the capability of modelling to forecast a representative failure mode of the unreinforced and reinforced masonry walls is investigated.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.475-485
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• 2022

This paper presents a comparative experimental study on structural behavior of the interlocking masonry walls under in-plane cyclic loading. The main purpose of this study is to increase lateral load-bearing capacities of masonry walls by using interlocking units. The interlocking units were designed by considering failure modes of masonry walls and produced using lightweight foamed concrete. To this end, three masonry walls which are hollow, fully grouted, and reinforced were constructed with interlocking units. Also, a traditional masonry brick wall was built for comparison reasons. The walls were tested under in-plane cyclic loading. Then, structural parameters of the walls such as lateral load bearing and total energy dissipation capacities, ductility, stiffness degradation as well as failure modes obtained from the tests were compared with each other. The results have shown that the walls with the interlocking units have better structural performance than traditional masonry brick walls and they may be used in the construction of low-rise masonry structures in rural areas to improve in-plane structural performance.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.355-372
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• 2022

The study is part of an experimental program on full-scale Un-Reinforced Masonry (URM) wall panels strengthened with Textile reinforced mortars (TRM). Eight brick walls (two with and five without central opening), were tested under the diagonal tension (shear) test method in order to investigate the strengthening system effectiveness on the in-plane behaviour of the walls. All the URM panels consist of the innovative components, named "Orthoblock K300 bricks" with vertical holes and a thin layer mortar. Both of them have great capacity and easy application and can be constructed much more rapidly than the traditional bricks and mortars, increasing productivity, as well as the compressive strength of the masonry walls. Several parameters pertaining to the in-plane shear behaviour of the retrofitted panels were investigated, including shear capacity, failure modes, the number of layers of the external TRM jacket, and the existence of the central opening of the wall. For both the control and retrofitted panels, the experimental shear capacity and failure mode were compared with the predictions of existing prediction models (ACI 2013, TA 2000, Triantafillou 1998, Triantafillou 2016, CNR 2018, CNR 2013, Eurocode 6, Eurocode 8, Thomoglou et al. 2020). The experimental work allowed an evaluation of the shear performance in the case of the bidirectional textile (TRM) system applied on the URM walls. The results have shown that some analytical models present a better accuracy in predicting the shear resistance of all the strengthened masonry walls with TRM systems which can be used in design guidelines for reliable predictions.