In-plane cyclic response of partially grouted masonry walls repaired and retrofitted with SRG strips
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Date
2025
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier Ltd.
Abstract
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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Keywords
Masonry, Partially grouted, SRG strips, Cyclic behavior, Repair, Retrofit, DIC