Augmenting out-of-plane behaviour of masonry wallet using PP-band and steel wire mesh

Extent of vulnerability of unreinforced masonry (URM) structures during seismic loading is too high in comparison to reinforced concrete structures. Brittle behaviour of URM causes life safety of inhabitants. Out-of-plane strength of masonry structure is much lesser than in-plane strength due to less moment of inertia of the former one. In this context, present study is an attempt to improve the out-of-plane behaviour of URM structures by strengthening with polypropylene band (PP-band) and steel wire mesh (WM). Two types of wall configurations; full scale wall and half scale wall were tested under four-point loading method as per ASTM E518-10 recommendations to investigate the out-of-plane behaviour of URM and reinforced masonry (RM). In both the types of walls, it was observed that due to presence of PP band and wire mesh, the load carrying capacity was enhanced and the failure time was delayed which helps in avoiding the sudden collapse of structure. Failure load and load-displacement behaviour of structures are reported in this study. An analytical formulation has also been developed for validating the experimental results. This study may be beneficial in exploring the low cost strengthening techniques for improved seismic behaviour of masonry structures.