Effect of different retrofitting techniques on in-plane behavior of masonry wallettes

This paper presents the results of diagonal compression tests conducted on a series of un-reinforced and reinforced masonry specimens. Reinforced specimens were strengthened by using three types of mortar coating (with and without inner reinforcement), mesh reinforcement, and PP-band reinforcement. In particular, four different reinforcement methods with mortar coating (bare mortar coating, coating with steel mesh, coating with polymer reinforcement, and coating with GFRP mesh reinforcement), three different mesh-only reinforcement (steel mesh, polymer mesh with larger grids, and polymer mesh with smaller grids), and 2 different arrangements of PP-bands (4 × 4 and 6 × 6) were tested. Also, two different un-reinforced specimens (with and without mortar between bricks in a row) were tested to observe the effect of this matter. Each reinforcement method was tested with three wallettes and the effectiveness of each reinforcement method was observed in terms of both loading capability and ductility (especially the GFRP mesh reinforcement with mortar coating) because of the low resistance of the un-reinforced specimens. Shear stresses and strains and the elastic characteristics of each method are also presented in this paper.