Experimental Behavior of FRP Strengthened Masonry Arches
Publication: Journal of Composites for Construction
Volume 14, Issue 3
Abstract
This paper deals with the experimental behavior of solid clay brick masonry arches strengthened with glass fiber-reinforced polymer composites. Twelve half-scaled segmental masonry arches subjected to a load applied at the quarter span were tested under displacement control up to failure. The arches were built using handmade low strength bricks and a commercial lime-based mortar, trying to mimic ancient structures. Besides reference unreinforced arches, five different strengthening arrangements, including the use of spike anchors, were studied. The experimental results provide significant information for validation of advanced numerical models and analytical tools and for code drafting. The experimental results also show that (1) only continuous strengthening strategies are able to prevent typical local failure mechanisms of unreinforced arches; (2) strengthening at the intrados is the most effective option to increase strength; and (3) strengthening applied at the extrados provides the higher deformation capacity prior to failure, endowing arches with considerable ductility behavior.
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Acknowledgments
The financial support provided by the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation through Project No. UNSPECIFIEDPOCTI/ECM/38071/2001 is gratefully acknowledged. F.R.P. composites and premixed mortar used in the experiments were provided by BETTOR MBT and MAPEI, respectively, to whom the writers are grateful. The assistance of the technicians during the construction of all specimens is highly appreciated. I.B. wishes to express his gratitude to CONACYT for the scholarship granted.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Composites for Construction
Volume 14 • Issue 3 • June 2010
Pages: 312 - 322
Copyright
© 2010 ASCE.
History
Received: Aug 26, 2008
Accepted: Oct 26, 2009
Published online: Feb 3, 2010
Published in print: Jun 2010
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