Strengthening of hollow brick infill walls with expanded steel plates

An efficient, economical and practical strengthening method for hollow brick infill walls was proposed and investigated in the present study, experimentally and numerically. This method aims at increasing the overall lateral strength and stiffness of the structure by increasing the contribution of the infill walls and providing the non-bearing components of the structure with the capability of absorbing earthquake-induced energy to minimize structural damage during seismic excitations. A total of eleven full-scale infill walls strengthened with expanded mild steel plates were tested under diagonal monotonic loading to simulate the loading condition of the non-bearing walls during an earthquake. The contact surface between the plates and the wall was increased with the help of plaster. Thickness of the plates bonded to both faces of the wall and the spacing of the bolts were adopted as test parameters. The experiments indicated that the plates were able to carry a major portion of the tensile stresses induced by the diagonal loads and provided the walls walls with a considerable confining effect. The composite action attained by the plates and the wall until yielding of the bolts increased the load capacities, rigidities, ductilities and energy-absorption capacities of the walls, considerably.