Browsing by Author "Pérez Pinedo, Luis Elías"

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    In-plane cyclic response of partially grouted masonry walls repaired and retrofitted with SRG strips
    (Elsevier Ltd., 2025) Pérez Pinedo, Luis Elías; Sandoval Mandujano, Cristián; Vargas, Laura; Alvarado Funes, Rolando José
    This article presents an experimental study investigating the capability of Steel Reinforced Grout (SRG) strips to restore the original lateral carrying capacity and enhance the ductility of partially grouted reinforced masonry (PG-RM) walls that may have been severely damaged by a seismic event. To this end, two full-scale walls with openings, previously tested as built until severely damaged, were repaired by reconstructing the damaged areas and reinforcing them with horizontally and vertically arranged SRG strips. The retrofitting solution consisted of a double-sided scheme using strips made of ultra-high tensile strength steel fiber sheets embedded in a matrix mortar. The retrofitted walls were subjected to a quasi-static cyclic loading combined with constant axial loading by following the same protocol employed for the control walls (undamaged walls). The experimental results show that the adopted SRG solution allowed the retrofitted walls to achieve 96% and 84% of the lateral load capacity of their respective undamaged walls. Furthermore, the lateral deformation capacity of the intervened walls increased by 45% compared to that of the control walls. Using digital image correlation (DIC) analysis, it was verified that SRG strips prevented the aperture of existing cracks and delayed the appearance of new ones, thus contributing to an improvement in initial stiffness degradation and allowing greater energy dissipation at high drift levels.
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    Non-destructive testing and kinematic limit analysis applied to a historic masonry church early intervened with RC elements
    (2025) Alvarado, Rolando; Barrientos, Marco; Suazo, Antonio; Menanno, Giovanni; Pérez Pinedo, Luis Elías; Palazzi, Nuria Chiara; Sandoval Mandujano, Cristián
    This article assesses the structural condition of a historic unreinforced masonry (URM) church whose original earthquake-resistant system was strengthened with reinforced concrete (RC) elements after the 1927 Mendoza earthquake. This early intervention, which took place between 1927 and 1930, consisted of RC frames formed by beams and columns embedded in the existing masonry. Since then, the church's seismic performance has been satisfactory, presenting minor damage after significant earthquakes. Despite its successful seismic performance, this church-and its strengthening strategy- has not been studied in depth. Due to the limited structural information available, a multidisciplinary study involving several non-destructive tests (NDT) in the church was conducted to understand its current structural state and reduce information gaps derived from historical sources and visual on-site inspection surveys. NDTs included the use of Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS), Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry, and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), among others. To assess the effectiveness of RC interventions, seismic behavior before and after the different retrofitting interventions was compared through linear kinematic analyses of the main failure mechanisms observed. The research results show that RC interventions increased the spectral accelerations required to activate overturning mechanisms in the macro-elements identified in the church, with safety indexes exceeding 1.0 for most RC-intervened macro-elements. The latter indicates that these elements are safe under the seismic loads specified by the Chilean code for heritage structures.
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    Seismic strengthening of partially grouted masonry walls with openings: Evaluation of ferrocement and BTRM solutions
    (2024) Pérez Pinedo, Luis Elías; Sandoval Mandujano, Cristián; Alvarado Funes, Rolando José; Vargas Carvajal, Laura Andrea; Calderón Díaz, Sebastián Andrés; Bernat, Ernest
    This paper presents an experimental study on the seismic performance of partially grouted reinforced masonry (PG-RM) walls strengthened with two solutions: Ferrocement coating (welded wire steel mesh embedded in cementitious mortar, WWM) and Basalt Textile Reinforced Mortar (BTRM) layer. For this purpose, two full-scale walls were built with hollow concrete units, with identical geometry and construction details of a previously reported tested wall, which acts as the control specimen (unstrengthened case) in this study. The walls, with a window-type opening and another door-type opening, were strengthened on one of their sides and tested under the combined action of constant axial compression and cyclic lateral loading up to failure. The experimental results show that both strengthening solutions increased the investigated walls' initial stiffness and lateral capacity. The increase in lateral capacity of both solutions was similar, about 37%. The 2D-DIC analysis implemented during the tests was instrumental in highlighting the areas on the strengthened walls where high strains were developed. The damage registered on the BTRM layer was more consistent with what was observed on the surface of the unstrengthened wall. Meanwhile, the damage reported on the wall strengthened with WWM did not exhibit apparent damage at higher drift levels due to the detachment between the ferrocement coating and the masonry substrate. Finally, the performance of some procedures to compute the contribution of the studied strengthening solutions was also assessed.