Author

FARNIA, N.; GALAL, K.; PEKAU, O.
Dept. of Building, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Abstract

Compared to reinforced concrete, relatively few experimental studies have been conducted to document behaviour of masonry columns under combined axial load and flexure. Furthermore, by introducing new techniques such as using carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) wraps, it is possible to enhance behaviour of reinforced masonry columns considerably. Therefore, this paper focuses on improving the seismic performance of reinforced concrete masonry (RCM) columns using CFRP wraps. In the current experimental study, six 1.4m reinforced masonry columns were constructed and tested when subjected to constant axial force and cyclic lateral excitations. Thecolumns have a cross-section of 390mm×390mm and were constructed using bull-nosed concrete units. The first column, which had no CFRP wraps, was used as a control specimen while the other five columns were wrapped using different layers of CFRP sheets or different wrapping schemes.From the tests, it was observed that CFRP wraps improve confinement of masonry columns, which leads to more ductile behaviour and improvement in lateral load capacity.

Key words
reinforced concrete masonry (RCM) columns, CFRP wraps, seismic, and ductile behaviour