Shear strengthening of unreinforced masonry wall with different fiber reinforced mortar jacketing

This study presents the comparison of different strengthening techniques for unreinforced masonry walls. Three materials are considered in four different ways for strengthening URM walls, textile reinforced mortars (TRM) plastering, applied on one and both faces of the wall, polypropylene fiber reinforced mortar plastering (PP-FRM), and ferrocement reinforced mortar plastering. Shear performance of the strengthened walls were tested under diagonal compression test method. Changes of shear performance of strengthened walls were determined by comparison of before and after the application of the reinforcements. The walls reinforced with ferrocement and polypropylene mortar plaster exhibited a significant improvement in shear strength capacity of up to 412% when compared to the control specimen. The results indicate a good increase of shear strength for all selected strengthening techniques, while stiffness change and failure mode are more varied. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.