Seismic Performance of Face Loaded Unreinforced Masonry Walls Retrofitted Using Post-Tensioning

Abstract Out-of-plane flexural testing of three full-scale unreinforced masonry (URM) walls seismically retrofitted using post-tensioning is reported. The selected wall configurations were representative of common URM walls that were vulnerable to out-of-plane failure, and imitated heritage URM construction by using salvaged clay brick masonry and ASTM type O mortar. Varying levels of pre-compression were applied to the test walls using a single mechanically restrained tendon inserted into a cavity at the centre of each test wall. Three different types of tendons were used for post-tensioning of the test walls, being threaded mild steel bar and sheathed greased seven wire strands (with tensile yield strengths of 1300 and 1675 MPa). Behaviour of the post-tensioned URM walls was compared to the response of a non retrofitted URM wall, with the out-of-plane flexural strength of the post-tensioned masonry walls observed to range from 2.9 to 10.3 times the strength of the non retrofitted URM wall. Several aspects pertaining to the seismic behaviour of post-tensioned masonry walls were investigated, including tendon stress variation, damage patterns, force displacement behaviour, initial stiffness and displacement capacity. Test results were compared with equations developed in previous studies, and it was established that the walls that were post-tensioned using seven-wire strands had measured strengths that compared favourably with predicted values, whereas the wall that was post-tensioned using mild steel bar had failed at a lower measured strength than the predicted value.