Seismic behavior of historical masonry arched walls reinforced with novel hybrid FRPs

• Published in: Structures (Oxford) 2025-01, Vol.71, p.107987, Article 107987
• Main Authors: Lin, Boxu, Chun, Qing, Ma, Yukun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Eccentric compressive loading; Historical masonry arched walls; Novel hybrid FRP reinforcing; Pseudo-static loading
• ISSN: 2352-0124; 2352-0124
• DOI: 10.1016/j.istruc.2024.107987

Historical masonry arched walls possess significant cultural and artistic value worldwide. However, due to limitations in early construction technologies, their structural integrity often falls short of contemporary seismic safety standards. This study aims to evaluate the seismic resistance of both unreinforced and novel hybrid FRP-reinforced historical masonry arched walls. Through monolithic compression and cyclic loading tests, this study investigates failure modes, wall strength, strain distribution, and energy dissipation capacity. Results demonstrate that compared to the control specimen (URM-1), under lateral input, the novel hybrid FRP sheet reinforced specimen (SRM) had the best performance in maximum bearing capacity (69.9 % increase), maximum stiffness (5.7 times), and total energy dissipation capacity (3.46 times), while, hybrid FRP plate reinforced specimen (PRM) exhibits highest energy dissipation capacity of each loading cycle in early loading stage. Under eccentric compressive loading, the PRM contributed to the largest bearing capacity increase (1.86 times to URM-1). Additionally, it is revealed that the failure of historical arched walls conforms to the hinges failure mechanism, the 3/4 position of the arch is the weakest point under eccentric compressive loading. This study helps to determine the optimal solution for strengthening historical masonry arched walls, which is essential to the heritage conservation.