Compression and tensile strength of masonry wallets with near surface mounted steel reinforcement

Unreinforced brick masonry has low tensile strength and hence vulnerable when subjected to out-of-plane and lateral loads. Mounting steel bars on the surface of masonry walls is a common strengthening method to mitigate the possible damage due to external forces. In this study, the effect of providing surface mounted steel bars on masonry wallets on compressive and diagonal tensile strength is studied. A total of 10 brick masonry specimens of size 600mm x 600 mm 110 mm were prepared. Out of the 10 specimens, 2 were unreinforced and remaining 8 were reinforced with surface mounted steel bars. The 6 mm diameter steel bars were provided in vertical and horizontal direction and also on both face of the masonry wallet. The surface mounted steel bar layers on either face of the masonry wallet were tied together with binding wire introduced through the bed joint. All masonry wallets were plastered. The test results of reinforced masonry wallet were compared with the corresponding test results of unreinforced masonry. The test results indicate that the masonry compressive strength and diagonal tensile strength can be increased by 62% and 193% by mounting surface reinforcement of 0.6%.