Paper number 916

THE USE OF COMPOSITES IN SEISMIC RETROFITTING OF MASONRY WALLS

John C. Jai¹, Rita M. Kiss², László P. Kollár², Helmut Krawinkler³, and George S. Springer¹

1Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
2Department of Civil Engineering, Technical University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary
3Department of Civil Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

Summary

A procedure was developed for estimating the effectiveness of composite materials in retrofitting masonry walls subjected to in-plane normal and shear loads. The reinforcement may be continuous fiber composites or fibrous mats applied to the wall in a wallpaper-like fashion. The walls may have one or more openings such as windows and doors. The model provides the load set and the deflection of the wall at failure. A parametric study is also presented illustrating the effectiveness of the reinforcement in strengthening masonry walls. This study shows that composite reinforcement may prove to be an effective method of reducing damage to masonry walls during earthquakes.

Keywords

infrastructure, masonry, seismic retrofitting.