STRENGTHENING OF PLASTERED HOLLOW BRICK INFILL WALLS USING STRIP CONCRETE/REINFORCED CONCRETE PANELS

In Turkey, majority of the building stock is known to be inadequate against earthquake and is required to be strengthened. Cast-in-place reinforced concrete (RC) infill walls, connected to the frame systems by use of epoxy glued anchorages, improve the behavior of the building significantly. However, requirements of this technique such as evacuation of the building and converts it to a construction area for a long time have directed the researchers developing occupant friendly, economic and structurally effective strengthening techniques. The principle of the technique presented in this paper is based on bonding strip concrete panels on some of the plastered hollow brick infill walls available in the building such that they will behave as RC infill walls. For this purpose, seven plastered hollow brick infill wall specimens with a scale of 1/2 were tested under reversed cyclic lateral loading. Six wall specimens were strengthened with strip concrete/reinforced concrete (RC) panels. Test results showed that application of concrete panels increased lateral strength of the test specimens and improved their behavior.