Quiun, Daniel

Cyclic Load Behavior on Existing Confined Masonry Walls Retrofitted With Wire Meshes

Abstract eng:
Structural masonry walls made of non-solid bricks are popular for housing construction in Peru due to economic reasons and lack of construction quality control. These non-solid bricks include both hollow bricks with more than 30% of holes in the bed area, and horizontally-hollow bricks (bricks with large horizontal holes) conceived for use in non-structural walls. The seismic behavior of masonry walls with such bricks is very poor and the seismic resistance is relatively low. For that reason, the Peruvian Masonry Code (Norma E.070 in Spanish) does not allow the use of such bricks for load-bearing structural walls. This paper deals with experimental research on existing confined masonry walls made of horizontally-hollow bricks and a way to retrofit and reinforce them using welded wire mesh, in order to enhance the seismic performance and avoid their brittle collapse during earthquakes. Firstly, two full scale confined masonry walls were built using horizontally-hollow bricks: wall W1 was constructed in a traditional manner, while for wall W2 a welded mesh was attached to both surfaces of the wall after its construction and later covered with cement mortar. To study the seismic behavior of these walls, cyclic lateral loads were applied in a displacement controlled test. In a second stage of the research, vertical load was added. Two walls, WV-1 and WV-2 were constructed, retrofitted with the wire mesh and covered with mortar. The test included vertical load before the cyclic loads were applied, similar to a 2-story (WV-1) and 3-story (WV-2) building. The reinforced wall W2 showed significantly improved behavior compared to wall W1. Larger values were obtained for the lateral rigidity, the load that produces flexural tension cracks, the diagonal cracking load and the maximum lateral load (45%). The other retrofitted walls with applied vertical load, showed even larger maximum lateral load than the traditional wall W1 (86% for wall WV-1 and 110% for wall WV-2). These promising results indicate that a retrofitting procedure can be used to reduce the seismic vulnerability of many self-constructed (non-engineered) masonry buildings in Peru.

Contributors:

Mamani, Plinio

Conference Title:

Proceedings of the 16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering

Conference Title:

16th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering

Conference Venue:

Santiago (CL)

Conference Dates:

2017-01-09 / 2017-01-13

Rights:

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