B¢4 Lad. Harbour Congress Antwerp -June 4783 REINFORCEMENT OF MASONRY WALLS BY INJECTION OF EPOXY RESIN D. Van Genert, Prof.Dr.Ir., Reyntjens Laboratory, K.U.Leuven HM, Vanden Bosch, Ir., Reyntjens Laboratory, K.U-Leuven ABSTRACT Injection of epoxy resins is becoming a valua~ ble technique for the renovation and reinfor~ cenent of old brickwork masonry. The paper deals vith technological and theoretical aspects of matonry grouting. Much attention has been paid to the evaluation of the grout ing and of the strengthening results. Numeri~ eal data are presented for 15th century asonty reinforced by injection of epoxy resin. INTRODUCTION Nowadays, the conservation of historic buil~ dings and towns is becoming more and more important. Restoration of buildings is related both to the conservation of architec tural and cultural heritage and to renovation and refitting for habitation on historic sites. On the other hand, renovation is not only a batter of architecture and culture. In many cases, the restoration and reinforcement of asonty and reinforced concrete structures and constructions, such as factories, retaining walls, sheds, staple houses, etc., presents a Valuable alternative to nev building. Im recent years, a wide variety of artificial resins has been developed for use in construc~ tion industry : protection against water, surface hardening of stone materials, crack injection products, bonding steel to’ concrete or concrete to concrete, injection of soils. Amongst the artificial resins the epoxy resins play an important part. They are basic Components of a wide range of repairing and teinforeing products. A recent technique for the restoration and reinforcement of heavily degraded brick masonry is based on the injection of epoxy resin into the masonry mass. Some practical applications of this technique have already been executed, but with varying suecess. Therefore a joint Tesearch program was set up by the Reyntjens Laboratory of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, in cooperation with W.T.C.B. (Scientific and technical centre for construc tion industry) and Energo Chemical Coating BV. This research is sponsored by 1.W.0.N-L (Gelgian Institute for the pronction of scien tifie research in industry and agriculture) DESCRIPTION OF INJECTION PROCEDURE ‘The injection resin is 2 two-component epoxy resin, The metering, mixing and pumping equipment operates at a continuous system, where the ko components come from different tanks and are pumped in the exact proportions to the mixing head ‘The two components are uniformly mixed in the nixing head, just before injection. In this way premature hardening is avoided, and Viscosity is kept as low as possible so that also the fine cracks and small pores can be filled. The injection pressure is fully controllable by the operator. The resin is Injected from one side of the masonry wall, Fig.1. To prevent the resin from flowing out of the masonry, the surfaces must be sealed up. The way in which this sealing vill be executed depends on the local situation : if the outside of a wall is to be kept clean, it is impossible to apply @ sealing with quickly hardening cement. This is the normal proce= dure for inside walls, which are plastered afterwards. SS SSeS Layer impervious to resin Fig. Injection scheme of a masonry wall on the grouting side holes are bored at regular intervals in horizontal and vertical Girection, In these holes the injection tubes fare inserted. The grouting is carried outstarting from the bottom and moving upwards, Fig.2 Fig.2, Injection of masonry elenent, starting at bottom the evolution of the work can be followed by watching the resin flowing out of the holes above the actual injection hole. A completely Sealed Layer must be provided at the bottom in order to prevent the grouting resin escaping downwards (Fig.1). By a properly executed grouting all particles will be reboaded by che epoxy resin, so that 2 practically homogeneous solid is obtained, showing much better mechanical characteristics. 1e depends on the physical characte 'S of the masonry, especially on its porosity and absorption capacity. If neces= Sary, the characteristica of the injection resin can be modified. The research is now being oriented towards a better understanding, of the relation between the characteristics Of the masonry and the resin, and the mecha~ nical strengths obtained CONTROL AND EVALUATION ‘The application of synthetics gives rise to a major unknowm, i.e. the quality of the product after hardening. Indeed, synthetics are not processed in their final form, but pass first Through a series of intermediate stages and undergo a number of operations prior to reaching their final state. Furthermore, there are other factors which play an impor~ tant part in the quality of the final produce, such as = the storage conditions of the various com ponents of synthetic resins; = the mixing conditions; = the physical and chemical nature of the matrix material to be injected. As che human element is very important in the evaluation of all these factors, a quality contrel system for the products, which covers as many eventualities as possible, mst be Set up and observed. Only if a constant high quality of the synthetic products is ensured, is it possible to obtain the optimum nechani~ cal characteristics for the injected masonry (eft) The quality control system is based on a series of identification tests + infrared Spectrum, epoxy equivalent, anine index of the hardener, density, percentage of ashes, viscosity. The evaluation of the mechanical characteris~ ties of the injected masonry is much more difficult. Until now, this has always been done by boring cylindrical elements from the injected wall (Fig.3) on vhich elements com pression testa are carried out. A detailed discussion of the results of such tests is Fig.3 Cylinders, bored out of masonry From compression tests, executed oa these samples, a mean and characteristic value of the compression strength can be found. However, to find a compressive strength, re- presentative for the whole wall, a great husber of samples have to be taken. In many cases, it is impossible to proceed in this way, Therefore, an alternative and less Gsstructive method for the determination of the strength of an injected brickwork masonry is being searched for. A relation is sought between full scale tests and a testing method, based on a quantitative infrared spectroscopic examination of the grouted material. The method consists in che spectroscopic analysis 9f the relative content of resin in very small samples, taken from the masonry. These small Samples are taken from borings vith small dianeter (10 = 20 um). Ia this way it becones possible to increase the mumber of tests, without causing considerable damage to thestructure. This enables a statistical ap~ proach to the control problem. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS gooral In the actual research program different types of masonry and injection procedures will be investigated. The results for one specific type of masonry are presented here. The matonry elements are taken from a 15th century building near Hasselt. In this case ic was possible to take consistent parts of masonry fon the site and to transport them to the Tatoratory. However, this is ormally impos~ sible due fo the heavy degradation of the maronry. In that case ve have to inject the degraded masonry on the site, before renoving the elenents for testing. The advantage of this method is that all works are executed under real conditions of temperature, humidi- ty, working, ete, Three wall elements were examined. The dimensions are given in Table te walt Hoighe Depth Length 2 a3 270 615 3 298 275 590 4 181 279 337 Table 1: Testing elenents Figure 4 shows che prepared wall ar. 2 before injection. Fig.4 Wall ar.2, before injection Conpression tests before injection To get an idea of the compression strength of the masonry, a compression test up to rupture was executed on wall nr. 4. The deformations were meacuredwith a mechanical extensoneter (Donec). The measured stress-strain curve is shown in Pig.5. (MPa) 9 200 400 600 800 1000 €(x10") Fig.5 Stress-strain curves for wall ar. & The Lines show a great hysteresis in the stress-strain curve. The walls 2 and 3 were subjected to compression tests up to a maximun load, equal to two thirds of the ultimate lo for wall 4, to avoid severe cracking in the walls. The corresponding stress~strain curves are shown in figures 6 and 7. The modulus of elasticity was determined from these curves. The results are gathered in Table 2. Based on the measured compression strength of wall 4, ve can make an estimate of the com pression strength of the walls 2 and 3 before injection. Therefore ve use the shape factors, given in the Belgian Standards NBN 324-301 and Nex 815-220 (ref. 3, 1). The calculated com pression strengths are given in Table 2. The Sifference between the Evo standards is very snall. Inpregnation The walls were impregnated on one side (the outher surface) with a stone hardener, based on sili acid ethyl ester. This impregnation can prevent leakage of the resin on the out~ side, if the joints are well closed. If not, the Joines can be renewed, or the leakages can be stopped with an easy removable sealing~wax(MPa) 16 ’ “ “ / / 2 2 10 v f c / 0 ‘Gfter injection faster insection ® 7 e / Betore injection betore injection =. ° g Do ee 9 100 200 300 400 $00 eix1d%) Fig.6 Stress-strain curves for wall ar. 2 Fig.7 Stress-strain curves for wall nr. 3 wall Modulus of Compression Compression Compression Elasticity Strength Strength Strength (neasured) (vst 524-301) (QXBN 815-220) Ne. mPa Nea a MPa 1569 11443 - - 2351 : 8,86 9,12 3 2425 = 10,01 10,07 Table 2 : Mechanical characteristics before injection The walls 2 and 3 vere grouted in the Labo~ ratory with che epoxy resin PC 1380'S of Energo Chemical Coating WW. Before injection the three free sides of the walls were cove- red vith @ sealing cement. As described above, the injection is started at the lower injection holes and moves steadily up to the upper injection holes. The grouted walls ar. 2 and ar. 3 were sub= jected to the same compression test as before injection. The measured stress-strain curves for the grouted walls are plotted in figures 6 and 7, in comparison with the stress-strain curves before injection. From these curves it is clear that the hysteresis in che stress~ strain relation is practically inexistant. The results are summarized in Table 3 and Table 4. The discharge of resin was measured, from which the resin contents obtained for wall 2 equal to 7,0 % and for wall 3 equal to 4,5 Z were calculated.walt E, a E/B, Before Agter injection | Injection ne. | wpa Mea 2 2351 6285 2,67 3 2425 5351 2,21 Table 3 : Comparison of moduli of elasticity before and after injection ee Feue | Feu! feue measured | NBN 824-301 ve MPa 2 |. 1650 8,86 187 3 | 16,32 10,01 1,63 Table 4 + Comparison of conpressive strength before and after injection From these figures ve may conclude that considerable increase in stiffness is obtained by injection of the epoxy resin into the ma~ sonry, In this particular masonry, the modu- lus of elasticity is more than doubled, shilat the deformational behaviour becomes linearly elastic up to high stresses. At the sane time the compressive strength has been in- creased with 60 to 80 per cent. As was to be expected, the gain in strength is smaller for the wall with the higher initial strength. Content of organic material The organic material content in the masonry before grouting is due to the ancient form lation of the mortar, as well as to organic Pollution. After injection of the epoxy resin, Exe content of organic material aleo includes the resin. The organic material content vas determined, according to the prescriptions of the Standard NBN 815-251. The results are given in Table 5. The results are compared With those, calculated from the aeasured dis charge of resin during the grouting. ‘The organic material content before injection was determined on wall nr. 4, because no holes could be bored on the two other walls before injection. The value gives an idea of the organic material content in the walls nr. 2 and 3. The difference between the calculated resin contents and the ones, measured by the organic material content, can be explained by the unknown organic material content before injection, which vas supposed to be equal to 3,08 per cent. Furthermore, the measuring of the epoxy resin discharge could not be done very precisely, because of the losses of resin at the moving Gf one injection point to another. These aspects will be taken care of in the next tests Infrared spectroscopy For these tests small cylinders with a dia meter of 16 m are bored out of the injected masonry, snd crushed to a grain size of 5 A representative, small sample of che powder is then used to make 2 transparent potassium bromide window, This so-called KBr-window is further examined in the infrared spectro photometer. An example of the infrared spec~ trogram obtained is shown in Fig.8. Fig.8 Infrared spectrogram of Kir-injected The peaks in the diagram are characteristic of the chemical nature of the products under in wall X Organic materiat | Organic material | 2 Resin injected [2 Resin convent tr. Before injection Acer injection caleulated 2 707 3,99 ze 3,08 E 3 5,81 27 45 Table 5: Content of organic aterialvestigation. By analytical means it is possi- ble to derive the amount of injected resin from these diagrans, We are now searching the peaks in the diagram, which are most represen~ tative for the preserice of epoxy in che miterial under investigation, as vell a3 che piraneters which have fo be determined to set {) the relation of the surface under the peak, dnd the percentage of epoxy resin ia the Gaterial. After that, che research will be Giected to the examination of the relation sich exists between the relative resin content (derived from the infrared spectrum), fand the strength of the masonry. concLusros ‘the results obtained so far indicate that the method of reinforcing brickwork masonry struct tures by injection of epoxy resins sounds very promising. There is a considerable increase fn stiffness and strongeh, vhich makes ic possible to project a new functional use for Old, degraded or heavily damaged masonry. Especially in the field of restoration of mnunents, the analyses, based on infrared spectroscopic investigation, could present a Sit, but effective quality control method. Acknowledgement Te research, reported on in this pa been supported by Euergo Chemical Coating NV and the Insticute for the Prosotion of Scien~ tific Research in Industry and Agriculture (LW.O.N.L.). The authors also wish to thank M. Opdebseck and W. Snolders, civil engineer ing students, for their enthusias: and careful experimental work. REFERENCES Van Biervliet, L. ané Van Genert, D. i Quality of praducts, methods and resuits in modern restoration techniques (in Dutch) Proceedings 'Studiedag Epoxy-technieken voor Structurele Herstellingen’, Viaamse Groepering voor Renovatie ea Restauratie~ technieken, Leuven 1982 2. Vanden Bosch, M. and Van Genert, D. : Structural renovation of masonry by injec~ tion of artificial cesias (in Ducch) Proceedings "Studiedag Epoxy-techaieken voor Structurele Herstellingen’, Visanse Groepering voor Renovatie en Restauratie~ Eechnieken, Leuven 1982 . NBN 824-301 + Design of Masonry 4) NBN 815-220 2 Tests on Concrete Compres~ sion Test.