Polypropylene as a Retrofitting Material for Shear Walls

Mustafaraj, Enea, Yardim, Yavuz, Corradi, Marco and Borri, Antonio (2020) Polypropylene as a Retrofitting Material for Shear Walls. Materials, 13 (11). p. 2503. ISSN 1996-1944

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13112503

Abstract

In recent years, on account of their excellent mechanical properties, composite materials (made of epoxy-bonded carbon, glass, or aramid fibers) have been used to reinforce masonry walls against in-plane actions. These materials have proven to be an effective solution for the strengthening of unreinforced masonry (URM) walls. Lately, research has shifted to the study of different types of fibers to avoid the use of epoxy adhesives, whose long-term behavior and compatibility with masonry are poor. This paper describes an experimental program that investigated the behavior of URM shear walls strengthened with two types of commercially available polypropylene products: short fibers (fiber length = 12 mm) and polypropylene nets. This investigation aimed to evaluate the influence of polypropylene reinforcement, embedded into an inorganic matrix, in terms of the improvement of the lateral load-carrying capacity, failure mechanism, ductility, and energy dissipation capacity of URM wall panels, where nine walls were subjected to in-plane loads using a racking test setup. The study showed that using two layers of polypropylene fibers embedded into a cementitious matrix greatly increased the in-plane load capacity of the brickwork masonry. On the other hand, the test results indicated that polypropylene nets, used as a repair method for cracked shear walls, cannot improve the structural performance of the walls.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: polypropylene fibers; polypropylene net; earthquake engineering; masonry retrofitting methods; masonry structures; mechanical testing
Subjects: F200 Materials Science
H200 Civil Engineering
H300 Mechanical Engineering
Department: Faculties > Engineering and Environment > Mechanical and Construction Engineering
Depositing User: Elena Carlaw
Date Deposited: 06 Apr 2021 10:21
Last Modified: 31 Jul 2021 15:45
URI: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/45866

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