Experimental Study And Theoretical Analysis On Seismic Performance Of Brick Masonry Structure Strengthened With Engineered Cementitious Composites Layer

Engineering Cementitious Composite (ECC) is a new kind of building materialwhich has characteristic of high strength, high ductility, and strain hardeningperformance in tension. It can remarkably enhance the seismic bearing capacity anddeformability of building structure, and effectively reduce the damage caused byearthquake. A technique was presented for strengthening of brick masonry structurewith the ECC layer in this paper, and ralated experimental study and theoretical analysiswere carried out. The main content covered are presented as follows.(1) Fifteen brick masonry columns were designed and tested under axialcompression, and the ultimate capacity and deformation performance of them werestudied. In addition, the bearing capacity of column strengthened by the ECC layer areanalyzed to derive a computation method.(2) One unreinforced brick wall, one brick wall reinforced with the steel-meshedcement mortar layer and three brick walls which was strengthened by the ECC layerwere designed and tested under low reversed cyclic lateral loading. The failuremechanism, hysteretic characteristics and energy dissipation capacity of brick masonrywalls between windows were investigated, as well as the effect of the strengtheningmethod was analyzed. And the corresponding bearing capacity computation method ispresented for five brick masonry walls between windows.(3) A more comprehensive theoretical analysis based on the previous experimentresults of brick masonry walls with retrofitting by the ECC layer was made. And the corresponding bearing capacity calculation method and initial stiffness are given forfour different failure modes of the brick masonry walls.The results showed that the proposed ECC-strengthening systems are effective inlimiting the cracking of the walls, and improve the ductility, damage tolerance andbrittle failure characteristic of them. Besides the retrofitting method has the advantageof simple construction, and low disturbance to the original structure and remarkableeffect. In this way, the ECC layer can prolong the structure service life and reduce oreven avoid the repair work under strong earthquake. And it can be used a new techniquefor strengthening of brick masonry structure.