Experimental Analysis of Out-of-plane Behavior of Masonry Infill Walls Strengthened with Textile Reinforced Mortar and Wall Post in Autoclaved Aerated Concrete Frames

Abstract

An experimental study was carried out to contribute to the rather limited data on the out-of-plane (OOP) behavior of masonry infills in reinforced concrete (RC) frames strengthened with the wall post and the textile-reinforced mortar (TRM). For this purpose, one unreinforced specimen served as the control, one specimen was reinforced with the wall post, and two specimens were reinforced with the TRM. They were fabricated and subjected to cyclic OOP loading until a drift ratio of 6%. Load and displacement values were recorded, and the research team discussed the failure mechanisms of the specimens. Results showed that the application of the wall post had the highest efficiency as it increased the load by about 3 times, while this value for TRM-strengthened walls was only 1.5. Strengthening modified the cracking, shifting it towards the middle parts of the wall, changing it from a brittle to a failure mode. Comparison of the envelope curves of specimens revealed significant improvements. The ultimate displacement and energy absorption capacity for the specimen reinforced with the post wall increased by 30% and 300% respectively. Similarly, for TRM-strengthened specimens, these values were 48% and 100%.