APPLICATION OF RETROFITTING TECHNOLOGY

DEVELOPED BY EQTAP PROJECT TO SHANGHAI CHANGNING

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL STADIUM

1. RETROFITTING TECHNOLOGY FOR MANSORY BUILDINGS DEVELOPED

IN THE EQTAP PROJECT---GROUP 1.3

Multi-story masonry buildings are very popular in China as residence, school, administration, hospital and hotel
etc. In the past earthquake disasters, many multi-story masonry buildings damaged, even collapse as no or not
enough earthquake-resistant fortifications is considered. The lateral load resistant capacity and deformation
capacity of masonry walls are the research target in the EQTAP project 1.3 to evaluate the seismic
characteristics of the existed masonry buildings.
Nine masonry wall specimens were cast using the mortar in different strength and tested under equivalent
lateral cyclic or monotonic load to simulate the masonry walls from lower to upper stories or subjected to
different normal stress. As shown in Figure 1, the specimen of masonry wall is laid on an I-shaped RC footing
beam. The masonry wall is topped by a RC beam connected with actuator for applying lateral loading to the
specimen. Between the oil jack and the top beam, rollers are placed to minimize the friction force due to the
lateral displacement of the top beam and specimen. The vertical load through the jacks is first applied up to the
designed value at the beginning of the test, and then is kept as constant load during the test. The specimens are
subjected to sine-function cyclic loading with each loading cycle time of 50 seconds. The lateral loading path is
designed by loading step before reaching the estimated specimen maximum resistance and displacement step
after reaching the estimated resistance.

Oil jack
A B
1 C 450
Actuator Layer 23 D
Far side
Loading side Specimen
E 1500
1 1
Layer 1 F
2 G 450

1 RC top beam (loading beam) Longitudinal bricklayer

2 RC footing beam 240 1350
A Actuator load cell 11
B Actuator displacement output Transverse bricklayer

C~G Displacement transducer 3000

Fig. 1: Illustration of the Loading Test System and Specimen Outline

1
Among these specimens, three specimens with cracks on the wall after the test, were repaired by bonding glass
fiber wrap by epoxide-resin glue on the surface of the wall. The test results of the repaired walls show that the
repaired wall specimens can basically recover the original lateral load resistant capacity. Main results are shown
as follows:

Table 1: List of Specimens with the Mortar Strength and Normal Stress (MPa)
Design mortar strength σ0 = 0.2 σ0 = 0.6 σ0 = 0.8 σ0 = 1.0
X102 (2.27)
M2.5 X108 (2.27)
RX102*
XX210 (3.88), RXX210*
M5 X202 (5.09) X206 (5.09) X208 (5.09)
X210 (5.09)
M10 Y210 (9.75)
X308 (18.2)
M15
RX308*
* Glass fiber repaired specimens; σ0 = Normal stress; Number in parentheses indicates the average mortar
strength from mortar cube test results.

Table 2 Material Properties of the Glass Fiber Wrap for Repairing the Cracked Wall
Product series Thickness Width Breaking strength (N/Strip 25×100mm)
Textile
number (mm) (cm) Weft Warp
CW130−900 0.13±0.01 90±2 Even ≥ 480 ≥ 440
CW130−1000 0.13±0.01 90±2 Even ≥ 480 ≥ 420

Table 3 The Maximum Load Pu and the Corresponding Displacement δ

Specimen σ0 (MPa) Pu (kN) fvE0 (MPa) δ (mm) δ/H (%)
X102 0.2 247 0.343 6.9 0.46
RX102 (Repaired) 0.2 238 0.331 8.9 0.59
XX210 1.0 573 0.796 5.2 0.35
RXX210 (Repaired) 1.0 485 0.674 4.1 0.27
X308 0.8 402 0.558 6.8 0.45
RX308 (Repaired) 0.8 491 0.682 8.1 0.54

Table 4 Comparison of the Shear Strength from the Test Results and from Design Code Suggestion
σ0 fv0 σ0 fv0 ζ N0 ζ N 0 fv0 fvE0
λ0 = f vE0 ζ N 0 f v0
Specimen (MPa) (MPa) (MPa)
X102 0.2 0.09 2.22 1.171 0.105 0.343 3.27
RX102 0.2 0.09 2.22 1.171 0.105 0.331 3.15
XX210 1.0 0.11 9.09 1.874 0.206 0.796 3.86 Average
RXX210 1.0 0.11 9.09 1.874 0.206 0.674 3.27 3.17
X308 0.8 >0.18 <4.44 1.438 0.259 0.558 2.15
RX308 0.8 >0.18 <4.44 1.438 0.259 0.682 2.63

In the Table 4, fv0 = the design shear strength of masonry wall calculated based on the test mortar strength; ζN0 =
the influence factor based on the masonry wall average normal stress; fvE0 = the average shear stress from the
test results according to the maximum load; λ0 = the ratio of the tested strength to the calculated strength. The

2
average ratio of fvE0/ζN0 fv0 is 3.17.

For the repaired and retested specimens, damage began from the place where cracks had occurred in the former
test. When the glass fiber crossing the cracks peeled off and broke with sound, the load resistant capability of
specimen decreased abruptly. From Fig.2 , the rehabilitated masonry walls repaired by glass fiber wrap can
recover the ultimate shear strength of the original wall.

Fig. 2 The Envelope Skeleton Curves of Specimen Load-Deflection Relations

2. INTRODUCTION TO THE STRENGTHENING TARGET

Constructed in 1928, Shanghai Changning International School (SCIS) Stadium used to be the gymnasium of
the No.3 Municipal Female School (No.3 MFS). It was overhauled and transformed into an indoor stadium with
donation form alumnus in 1980’s. SCIS (co-funded by No.3 MFS and a foreign-funded enterprise) planned to
transform the building, which is a single-story (partially two-story) composite structure built with bricks and
wood, to be used as classrooms, demanding that there should be no exterior change while constructing an
interior attic which is totally separated from the original building and served as the second story. The plane view,
north elevation and sectional view of the buildings are shown in the figures.

The building is 25.9m long as 7 bays of 3.7m in south-north direction and 13.8m wide as the span of roof truss
in east-west direction. The bottom chord is in an elevation of about 5.9m above the ground. The walls are built
with clay brick and lime mortar. The thickness of the gable walls at the south and north end of the building is
370mm and the number is 240mm for the east and west bearing walls. At the exterior side of the walls where the
roof trusses are supported brick piers with cross-sectional size of 490mm×490mm (which decreases to 240mm
×490mm above the elevation of 3.3m) are found. No tie beam or tie column is found. The roof trusses are
supported on walls through connection with pre-embed wood block in the walls. The foundation takes the form
of offset footing. The upper surface of the footing is 1.14m deep under the ground and the distance between
edge of the footing and the wall is 720mm.

The walls of the building are basically in good condition except for structural deformation featured by cracks at
the following three positions:

3
1) A vertical crack penetrating the wall is found in the south gable wall and the maximum width is 1.0mm.

2) A vertical crack located between top of the entrance and the upper ventilating widow is found in the north
gable wall. The width of this crack is around 0.3mm.

3) Diagonal cracks are found in the west walls filled between the lower corner of north windows and the ground
and have extended to the north gable wall, where there was the dismantled stairs.

The first two cracks reflect the poor integrity due to the lack of construction measure such as tie beam. At the
position where the dismantled stairs of the original house was supported the load is comparatively large thus
producing the last type of cracks.

After being checked carefully, the wood roof truss system including link rods are considered to be basically
intact except that some longitudinal cracks are found in some of the rods of the wood truss.

Testing the brick strength according to the ‘Sintering Brick’ (GB/T 5101-1998), it is observed that the actual

brick size is different from standard brick size(240mm×115mm×53mm) and the brick strength is not lower

than MU7.5(the compressive strength is 7.5MPa). The mortar used is lime mortar with better viscosity,
comparatively higher shear strength and lower compression strength than ordinary cement-lime mortar. Quality
of the mortar is ordinary with the strength estimated by hand-feeling ranges from M1.5 (1.5 MPa) to M2.5 (2.5
MPa). Tests by single shear jack accordance with the ‘Technical standard for site testing of engineering’ (GB/T
50315-2000) are conducted on the south gable wall and the east between-two-window walls. As a result, it’s
estimated that shear strength of the walls is not lower than that of the M2.5 (2.5 MPa) cement-lime mortar.

3. SUGGESTIONS ON STRUCTURAL STRENGTHENING

The new interior structure has no influence on the original buildings as it is completely separated from the
original building. Adopting bricks with M7.5 (7.5 MPa), mortar with M1.5 (1.5 MPa) and foundations capacity
as 90 kPa. The computational results show both satisfaction of upper structure and foundations according to the
local Code of Shanghai. On the basis of the site investigation, structural calculation and taking requirements of
the school authorities into consideration, the following strengthening measures are suggested:

Firstly, the major problem here is that the building suffers the lack of tie beam to satisfy the constructional
measures of the current Code. Tie column and two levels of reinforced concrete tie beams should be added
inside the brick wall so as to increase integrity of the structure.

Secondly, the presence of cracks in walls may weaken the structural. Strengthening measures, therefore, should
be taken in this regard as pouring with epoxide-resin glue and then bonding high-strength glass fiber polymer
wraps to the surfaces of cracked walls are suggested to insure integrity. At the same time, as the gable walls are
also suggested to be bonded with high-strength glass fiber polymer wrap on the interior surfaces above the
bottom chord of roof truss as the gable walls is quite high with 12m.

4
Thirdly, some rods of the roof truss with cracks need to be repaired by pouring epoxide-resin glue and bonding
with high-strength glass fiber polymer wrap.
4. CONCLUSIONS
(1) The retrofitting method for masonry walls by using glass fiber polymer is very effective to enhance the
seismic resistant capacity of existing masonry structures which are widely used in the seismic region
of Asia-Pacific countries.
(2) The retrofitting method developed in this paper sponsored by EQTAP program has been successfully
applied to an old building which, built in 1920’s, has not been engineered and could not meet the
seismic requirement of current Code. In the strengthening practice of the building, high strength glass
fiber polymer was used to strengthen the masonry walls by bonding it on interior surfaces of gable
walls above the elevation of bottom chord, together with adding some tie columns and beams in side
the brick masonry wall.
(3) The retrofitting project of Shanghai Changning International School has been completed in 2001, and
the School stadium has been put into operation after then.

5. REFERENCE

[1] Dagen Weng., Xilin Lu., Xiaosong Ren., Zhuhui Lu.(China), Kangning Li. & Tetsuo Kubo.(Japan),
Experimental Study on Seismic Resistant Capacity of Masonry Walls, 4th Multi-lateral Workshop on
Development of Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster Mitigation Technologies and their Integration for the
Asia-Pacific Region(EQTAP).
[2] China National Standard: Structure Design Code for Masonry GBJ 388, China Building Industry
Publisher, 1991.
[3] China National Standard: Seismic Design Code for Building GBJ 1189, China Building Industry Publisher,
1991.