Abstract:
This research examines the use of Fly Ash masonry brick, a sustainable building material, and
its retrofitting by the application of Fiber-based retrofitting technology. The main objective is
to improve the performance of unreinforced masonry brick walls (URM) after reaching their
maximum load capacity, since they are prone to structural collapse when subjected to
horizontal forces. The retrofitting of existing masonry buildings has chosen polypropylene PPband as the most feasible alternative because to its cost-effectiveness, material accessibility,
and simplicity of installation. Laboratory studies and computer simulations were performed to
evaluate the seismic effectiveness of PP-band retrofit, in order to demonstrate its efficiency.
The walls were subjected to lateral pressures by applying pre-compression pressure to evaluate
the performance of PP-band retrofit brickwork under horizontal loads. The results indicate that
retrofitting with PP-band may improve the post peak performance by about 2.5 times compared
to specimens without retrofitting. Additionally, sophisticated modeling approaches are used,
including the incorporation of Continuum Masonry Modeling (CMM) and Concrete Damage
Plasticity Model (CDPM), to simulate and verify the experimental results numerically. The
investigation revealed a significant connection between the simulation and experimental
findings, with a negligible divergence of about 2.5%. The tight alignment between the
suggested modeling approaches and the experimental design verifies their efficacy and
highlights the correctness of the design. The little variation may be ascribed to intrinsic errors
in the experimental and simulation parameters.
