Experimental study on seismic behavior of Un-Reinforced Masonry (URM) brick walls strengthened with shotcrete

In this study, the efficiency of conventional shotcrete technique for strengthening of Un-Reinforced Masonry (URM) walls was shown using an experimental program. In addition, in this program the possible benefit of using anchors for connecting the shotcrete reinforcement layer to the R/C foundation was studied. The experimental program consisted of testing five full scale specimens with two different height-to-length aspect ratios and so different failure modes, under in-plane cyclic loading conditions. Two specimens were tested as reference and others were strengthened on a single-face using shotcrete layer. According to the results, strengthening of URM walls using traditional shotcrete approach created a completely stiff panel and prevented the formation of cracks. The failure mode in both reference and strengthened short length walls was rocking and the shotcrete layer could increase the strength capacity, energy dissipation, and stiffness of wall due to yielding and rupture of steel bars anchored to the foundation. On the other hand, in strengthened long length walls, shotcrete layer increased the shear sliding capacity with no or small increasing in their rocking capacity. Therefore, the failure mode of strengthened walls converted from shear sliding to rocking, even in the specimen with anchorage system. The distributed type of anchorage system could not improve the strength capacity of long length wall. Anchorage system was able to improve the out-of-plane performance of strengthened walls.