Strengthening of unreinforced masonry walls against out-of-plane loads using carbon textile reinforced mortar optimized by short PVA fibers

Textile reinforced mortar (TRM) is a potential substitute for fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) and exhibits multi cracking and strain-hardening behaviors under tensile loads. In this work, short polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers were added into the TRM matrix to improve the toughness of matrix and serviceability of the composite. The effectiveness of the optimized TRM composite on strengthening masonry walls against out-of-plane loads was studied through 10 groups of unreinforced masonry (URM) walls, including 3 groups of reference specimens and 7 groups of TRM-strengthened specimens. The effects of textile reinforcing ratio, masonry strength and wall thickness on the deflections and bearing capacity were analyzed in this work. The failure mode, load-deflection response, ductility factor and energy absorbed capacity of specimens under out-of-plane loads are presented in the paper. The experimental results show that the optimized TRM composite can significantly improve the out-of plane deformation and bearing capacity of masonry walls. Finally, the analytical models associated with the flexural and shear failures are proposed to predict the out-of-plane bearing capacity.

Automated summary

Textile reinforced mortar (TRM) with added short polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers improves the toughness of the matrix and serviceability of the composite, significantly enhancing the out-of-plane deformation and bearing capacity of masonry walls, as demonstrated in the experimental results of this study. Proposed analytical models associated with flexural and shear failures can be used to predict the out-of-plane bearing capacity of TRM-strengthened masonry walls.