SHEAR STRENGTH OF CRACKED MASONRY REINFORCED WITH DIFFERENT CFRP CONFIGURATIONS

Bricks and mortar are used globally as a building material, but repairing cracked masonry presents challenges in the construction industry.Masonry walls are susceptible to extreme loads.Carbon fibre-reinforced polymers (CFRP) are a good solution for strengthening unreinforced masonry (URM) subjected to in-plane or outof-plane loading.Therefore, investigating effective and cost-efficient methods to repair and reinforce masonry walls is crucial.However, the behaviour of cracked masonry, particularly when retrofitted with CFRP, has not been investigated thus far.This paper presents the experimental tests and the shear behaviour of cracked triplet masonry reinforced with CFRP.In particular, the increase in strength and ductility due to adding CFRP was analysed.Specimens consisted of three bricks and two cracked mortar joints without reinforcement and triplets repaired with CFRP and tested under shear load.In addition, the specimens were modelled using a 3D finite element (FE) programme.