EXPERIMENT AND CALCULATION METHOD FOR ECCENTRICALLY LOADED MASONRY COLUMNS STRENGTHENED WITH BAR MESH HDC

Twenty seven brick masonry columns strengthened with bar mesh highly ductile fiber reinforced concrete (BMHDC) jackets were subjected to concentric and eccentric loads. The compressive behavior of the reinforced masonry columns was investigated, including the failure mode, load-displacement curves, peak load and sectional strain distribution. The results indicate that the BMHDC jackets greatly improved the strength and deformability and delayed the brittle failure of the masonry columns. Moreover, the BMHDC jackets and masonry substrates had a good synergy, which enhanced the overall performance of the masonry columns. Although the strength decreased with the increase in the initial eccentricity, the effectiveness of the reinforcement was not weakened by the eccentric load. Based on the tension effect of the HDC and a simplified stress distribution on the cross section, a formula was proposed for predicting the strength of eccentrically loaded masonry columns reinforced with BMHDC jackets. The prediction conformed well with the experimental results. The influence of a repeated loading on the strength of the strengthened masonry columns was analyzed. The compressive strength reduction factor of the HDC was proposed under different initial eccentric loads, which can be applied in the design of strengthening.