Strengthening Of Brick Walls with Openings during Construction by Steel Wire Mesh around Openings on Both Sides of Wall

Abstract

A significant part of the building is made of brick wall load bearing structures. The present of openings in brick walls can have an effect on the load capacity and cracking regime after construction under working load. So, there is a need for strengthening brick walls with openings during construction. In the present study, a total of five brick wall specimens having a wall dimensions (85*65) cm and thickness (10) cm with square opening (25*25) cm were tested. The brick wall specimens were divided into two groups as flow.Group one consisted of one brick wall with R.C lintel 35 cm length as a control wall. Group two consisted of four strengthened brick wall specimens by fixed strip of steel wire mesh covered with cement mortar around opening on both sides of wall. With strip wide (5,10,15,20 cm). All brick wall specimens were tested under static loads in regular increments from zero up to the cracking load then failure load. In addition, wall deformations have been measured by LVDT. The obtained test results show that fixing strip of steel wire mesh covered with cement mortar around opening on both sides of wall with strip wide 5 cm gives an increase in the load carrying capacity up to 135 % from the control ultimate capacity. However, fixing strip of steel wire mesh covered with cement mortar around opening on both sides of wall with strip wide 10 cm gives an increase in the load carrying capacity up to 153 % from the control ultimate capacity. In addition, fixing strip of steel wire mesh covered with cement mortar around opening on both sides of wall with strip wide 15 cm gives an increase in the load carrying capacity up to 167 % from the control ultimate capacity. However, fixing strip of steel wire mesh covered with cement mortar around opening on both sides of wall with strip wide 20 cm gives an increase in the load carrying capacity up to 184 % from the control ultimate capacity. The results suggest that Increasing wide of wire mesh strip increases significantly the load carrying capacity of wall. However, ductility has been significantly increased. In addition, it was found that strengthening with this technique is durable, economic and easy to apply.