Retrofitting of Masonry Wall Panels Against Out-of-Plane Bending: An Experimental Study

The authors conducted an experimental study of brick masonry wall panels adopting a linear scale factor of 3. Unreinforced masonry walls tend to have sudden brittle failure under out-of-plane bending caused due to earthquake. Wall panels of size 450 450 70 mm are built in C.M 1: 5 using miniature bricks of size 70 35 25 mm adopting English bond. The thickness of mortar was maintained around 6 to 7 mm. Wall panels are retrofitted against out-of-plane bending with 2 strips and 3 strips of GFRP bonded with polyester resin and tested with a hydraulic jack inducing lateral load. When masonry wall is subjected to out-of-plane bending in a built environment, the middle one third heights will undergo lateral bending causing horizontal crack along the bed joint leading to sudden collapse. Hence, it is decided to retrofit the wall panels against lateral bending with GFRP lamination set in polyester resin. The lateral load is induced using a hydraulic jack with pressure gauze fitted with it. The jack was calibrated in the UTM to get the corresponding loads for the pressure. The load carrying capacities of retrofitted specimens were compared with that of the unretrofitted specimen, taken as control specimen. The results are arrived at a logical sequence and analysed in a lucid manner.