Evaluation of fire resistant fiber composites for strengthening masonry walls

High strength fiber composites are being used to retrofit and strengthen various types of structures worldwide. Fiber composites have been found to be very effective for retrofitting Unreinforced Masonry Walls (URM). The results presented in this paper deals with the performance of masonry beams reinforced with high strength fibers and fire resistant inorganic polymers. The masonry beams were designed to simulate the masonry walls and were tested in out-of-plane loading. Beams constructed using clay and concrete bricks were reinforced with high strength fibers on the tension side. Two types of fibers, namely aramid and carbon were evaluated. Three levels of reinforcement were studied. Beams strengthened with organic polymer were also tested to evaluate the comparative performance of inorganic and organic polymers. The beams were tested in three-point bending using a MTS machine. The details of fabrication, contribution of fibers to strength and stiffness and comparative evaluation of inorganic and organic matrices are presented in the paper. The results indicate that the fire poof inorganic polymer provides comparable strength and stiffness increase as the organic polymer matrix. The failure of beams strengthened with organic matrix occurs due to delamination where as the failure of beams strengthened with inorganic polymer occurs due to fiber fracture.