Experimental Investigation Exploring the Use of Hybrid Composites for Repairing Damaged Masonry Walls Under In-Plane Cyclic Loading

This experimental study presents the techniques developed for retrofitting clay brick and concrete block masonry walls using fiber-containing and textile-reinforced cement-based mortar according to the damage mechanism under lateral cyclic loading. Retrofitting techniques using this hybrid cementitious composite material have been shown to improve the load-carrying capacity, ductility level, and stiffness of damaged masonry walls. Therefore, the masonry walls’ mechanical response and failure modes characterized by distinct damage patterns were analyzed. In the wall tests, different pre-compression values were used with cyclic lateral loading to induce various damage levels. The failure modes obtained from these tests were utilized to develop retrofitting systems and investigate the effectiveness of chopped fiber and textile-reinforced cement-based mortar as a means for strengthening damaged masonry walls. The experimental results showed that these techniques improved the lateral load-carrying capacity of a damaged concrete masonry wall and a damaged clay brick masonry wall by 42% and 21.83%, respectively. Their ductility increased by approximately 30% and 24%, while their initial stiffness increased by 1.4% and 2.4%, respectively. It can thus be concluded that the bonding of hybrid cementitious composite material with damaged concrete masonry wall is stronger and more effective than with damaged clay brick masonry wall.