Shear walls in terraced houses, activating masonry by using reinforcement

In crowded areas, houses are often positioned in a row (terraced houses) to save expensive space. In most cases a rectangular floor plan of approximately 5 x 10 m2 is used. The load bearing walls are positioned in the length of the floor plan. Usually, only little wall-length is available in the width direction of the floor plan and this may endanger the resistance against wind loads in this direction. The structural performance of piers may be active or passive. Active piers have a shear load bearing function for horizontal loading in one direction. In the opposite direction these piers may be passive. This paper deals with the possibilities to activate passive piers by using reinforcement. Experimental parameters were: the material used, the amount and pre-stress level of the reinforcement, the connection of reinforcement with the masonry, the amount of pre-load on the wall and the shape of the specimen’s section. The results of experiments to investigate the effects of these parameters on push over capacity and load displacement characteristics are discussed.