Carbon textile reinforced mortar to masonry bond: An experimental investigation

The utilization of high-performance composite materials for the repair and strengthening of existing masonry structures is a common practice among the engineering community at present. To this point, textile reinforced mortars (TRM) have been recognized to be an efficient technique for the strengthening of the unreinforced masonry. TRMs comprise a textile fibre material impregnated within an inorganic matrix that is externally bonded to the masonry surface. A key parameter that controls the effectiveness of any externally bonded system is the bond between the mortar, the reinforced fibres, and the substrate; this has been often identified as the weak link in TRM strengthening. The effect of the strengthening mortar on the bond strength is not widely investigated. However, in some studies, the strengthening mortar defines as one of the crucial parameters to the TRM to masonry bond behavior. Hence, a number of experimental studies have been conducted to highlight the bonding performance of TRM. However, results are in many cases contradicting due to the inherent complexity of the problem that stems from the uncertainties characterizing the constituent material structural properties. Therefore, more experimental results are required to inform the investigation of the TRM to masonry bond mechanics. In this work, preliminary results from an experimental study on the masonry to TRM bond by means of single-lap shear tests with regards to 150mm bond lengths are presented. The parameter of the investigation was the type of mortar matrices. (c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.