Experimental investigation and analytical model of brick masonry retrofitted by combination of steel and timber members

Abstract

Masonry is a complex structural material with different properties due to a combination of units and mortar. Masonry has very high compressive strength, but when subjected to lateral forces such as earthquakes, its load-carrying capacity reduces significantly because of low tensile capacity. For this research, an experimental study was carried out to study brick masonry's behaviour and failure pattern. A retrofitting scheme was proposed to enhance in-plane load-carrying capacity under push-over loading conditions. A push-over test was performed on the brick masonry walls, and after failure, it was retrofitted and subjected to loading. The retrofitted wall has increased the masonry's load-carrying capacity and enhanced its ductile behaviour, having a yield drift of 8.63%. As the proposed system undergoes large deformations before failure, the behaviour factor R is calculated as 4.53 for ductility of 10.8. Masonry and its components are characterised by performing laboratory experiments and compared with previous studies. The mechanical properties of brick units, mortar, and masonry prism are obtained according to suitable code procedures. An analytical model based on the virtual work approach is developed to estimate failure patterns and load-carrying capacity. The analytical model predicts a failure pattern for conventional brick walls, the same as the experiment failure pattern.