Comparative study of performance of unreinforced and reinforced

masonry wall panel under lateral loading based on numerical

simulation

Er. Anil kasula1, Dr. Manjip Shakya2, and Er. Sudip Karanjit3
1
Khwopa College of Engineering, kasula.aneel@khwopa.edu.np
2
Khwopa Engineering College, shakya.manjip@khec.edu.np
3
Khwopa Engineering College, karanjit.sudip@khec.edu.np
Keywords: mechanical properties; strengthening and conservation; reinforcing method; ABAQUS; damage pattern

1. Introduction (in-plane or out of plane) defines the failure

mechanism in masonry wall (Tomaževič,
Masonry is a complex material because of the
2009). Depending upon direction of horizontal
individual specific characteristics of each of
load, the failure of masonry is either due to in-
constituent material, masonry units, and
plane failure or out of plane failure mechanism
mortar, which make it difficult to predict the
during seismic loading. The out of plane
mechanical characteristics of masonry making
failure of masonry is mainly due to excessive
masonry structures most vulnerable structures
out of plane vibration of walls overcoming
during seismic activities. The structural
ultimate displacement capacity and lack of
performance of masonry is still very difficult
connecting ties unable to withstand the shear
to define due to its heterogeneous property and
forces from diaghragms. The in-plane failure
strong nonlinear response associated with
of masonry mainly occur due to flexure
cracking and crushing of masonry. The
mechanism and shear mechanism. The failure
masonry structure are complex,
mechanism is characterized by a compressive
inhomogeneous and anisotropic building
failure at toe due to overturning of the wall
material containing many discontinuities
commonly known as rocking failure and the
which describes why the results form testing of
shear failure is characterized either by shear
two identically built masonry wall under same
sliding on bed joint or formation of diagonal
workmanship in the experiments are not
cracks.
identical. (Zhang et al., 2017).
In recent years, different method of numerical
The behavior or failure mechanism of masonry
simulation considering different modeling
wall is influenced by various factors. Under the
techniques have been developed to predict the
combination of vertical and horizontal loading,
behavior of large scale masonry structures
the aspect ratio of wall, mechanical properties
whose experimental analysis would be very
of masonry units, orientation of brick unit and
expensive, laborious and time consuming.
mortar joint, reinforcing elements, if any as
Many design methods and codes have been
well as the boundary condition, level of pre-
developed for new construction of masonry
compression and direction of horizontal loads
structures around the world. However, the
strengthening and conservation of existing
historic masonry structure of architectural
heritage and normal masonry structures have
been important issue to be deal with. Different
kind of strengthening and reinforcing method
have been developed and in this study, we use
steel strips with anchor bolt arrangement as
reinforcing method. The behavior and
response of wall reinforced with steel strips
and anchor bolt arrangement is studied based
on results obtained from numerical simulation.
A comparative study of change in response of
unreinforced and reinforced masonry wall
panel under in-plane lateral load is presented in
this study. The response of unreinforced
masonry wall panel under displacement
controlled monotonic lateral load is initially
determined by establishing a three dimensional
numerical model in ABAQUS finite element
platform and validated against the
experimental results. The simplified micro
modeling technique is adopted. The concrete
damage plasticity model is used as material
model and surface based coupled cohesion-
friction model is used to model the interface
properties. Another separate numerical model
of reinforced masonry wall is prepared
considering same mechanical properties and
complete finite element analysis is performed
using explicit solver in ABAQUS. Based on
the numerical analyses of reinforced and
unreinforced masonry wall, a comprehensive
study is conducted on the change in
performance and damage pattern in masonry
components of both wall panels. Further on,
the influence of change in reinforcing pattern
on masonry wall is studied considering extra
two reinforcing pattern but no significance
change in load carrying capacity of these
reinforced masonry wall was observed.
Likewise, the influence on behavior of
reinforced masonry wall due to change in
number of anchor bolts is studied by
comparing the lateral load carrying capacity,
stiffness and damage patterns.
2. Conclusions
The peak load carrying capacity of reinforced
masonry wall panel increased by 22%
compared to that of unreinforced masonry wall
panel. For different reinforcing patterns
considered in this study, no significant chane
in load carrying capacity of reinforced
masonry wall was observed. Similarly, no
signicicant change in response of reinforced
masonry wall was observed for change in
number of anchor bolts.
References
Tomaževič, M. (2009). Shear resistance of masonry
walls and Eurocode 6: Shear versus tensile
strength of masonry. Materials and
Structures/Materiaux et Constructions, 42(7),
889–907. https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-008-
9430-6
Zhang, S., Yang, D., Sheng, Y., Garrity, S. W., & Xu,
L. (2017). Numerical modelling of FRP-
reinforced masonry walls under in-plane seismic
loading. Construction and Building Materials,
134, 649-663.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2016.12.09
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