Numerical and Experimental Investigation on Cyclic Behavior of Masonry Infill Walls Retrofitted with CFRP

This paper presents verification of the numerical model of masonry infill walls against the experimental results. Three cases are investigated: an undamaged model, a damaged model, and a carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) strip. ABAQUS commercial finite element model (FEM) software was used in the modeling. Nonlinear behavior as well as cracking and crushing of masonry bricks were simulated using the Concrete Damaged Plasticity (CDP) model. To solve this, a three-dimensional simplified micro-model was used. Experimental and simulation of the hysteresis curve, skeleton curve, damage patterns, maximum and minimum stresses, and plane strain distribution were compared. The changes in natural frequencies, and mode shapes before and after CFRP strengthening masonry wall are evaluated. A sensitivity analysis was done to study the effect of damage and strengthening on the nonlinear behavior of steel frames with masonry infill. This investigation demonstrated that the numerical model was able to effectively simulate and predict the strength of these models. Then a look at the effect on seismic performance is reported and commented on.