Compression behaviour of brick masonry strengthened with Textile Reinforced Concrete (TRC) - A preliminary study

Masonry is one of the most widely used conventional materials throughout the world but its failure mainly occurs due to low tensile resistance. The main objective of this study is to observe the effectiveness of the relatively new construction material Textile Reinforced Concrete (TRC), in strengthening the brick masonry prism. In the present work TRC consisting of an overnight cementitious curing mortar (OCCM) along with alkali resistant glass textile which can resist high tensile stress is used for strengthening of unreinforced brick masonry. The technique adopted in this work is not time consuming and is also practically feasible. Tests were carried out to study the axial compressive behaviour of prisms strengthened with cast-in-place TRC overlays and pre-cast TRC laminae with varying reinforcement ratios. Detailed investigations were carried out to observe failure patterns and ultimate failure load. From observations, 4 ply TRC overlays were found to be more effective. Among all strengthening methods mortar bonded TRC laminae exhibited enhancement in terms of compressive strength. It is concluded that this technique may benefit many applications in the area of masonry retrofit.