Static-cyclic in-plane tests on clay brick masonry retrofitted with a single sided fabric-reinforced cementitious matrix layer, deep mounted CFRP strips and flexible anchor connection

Retrofitting clay brick masonry using Deep Mounted (DM) Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) strips embedded in grooves filled with a ductile adhesive considerably increases the out-of-plane flexural capacity of slender unreinforced masonry walls. For masonry walls that need reinforcement for both out-of-plane, and in-plane loads, DM CFRP reinforcement is insufficient and was expected to lead to a degradation due to vertical shear stress concentrations. Single sided fabric reinforced cementitious matrix (FRCM) and a flexible anchor connection were implemented to increase the in-plane capacity. An experimental study was conducted on nine masonry walls with the combined reinforcement systems. Three different wall geometries, with three different axial loads per geometry, were tested to investigate the cyclic in-plane behaviour of the reinforced clay brick masonry walls. Experiments showed that none of the specimens had any damage at both the treated and none-treated surfaces, meaning that no shear failure had occurred. Rocking behaviour was observed for all the specimens. Additional toe-crushing and bed-joint sliding occurred at the medium and large specimens respectively.