Author(s)

Fengchi Wang, Hao Guo and Haiming Hu

Corresponding Author

Fengchi Wang

ABSTRACT

Through the study of 8 masonry walls (including contrast specimens) reinforced with invisible beams under concentrated load, an analysis is made of the destruction patterns and load-displacement curves of masonry walls reinforced with invisible beams. The experimental results show that the bearing capacity and crack resistance of reinforced masonry wall with invisible beams under concentrated load is much higher, compared with unreinforced walls. What’s more, the wall’s ductility and deformability increase significantly. When reaching the ultimate bearing capacity, the transverse and vertical displacements of reinforced specimens improve greatly. The steel sheet has a strong constraint on bulging deformation of the wall, while the lacing bar has a strong supporting capacity on steel sheet, which can delay the steel sheet’s entering the yield stage. In addition, the lacing bar can improve the working ability with crack and is useful to enhance the bearing capacity of the specimen.

KEYWORDS

Masonry structure, reinforcement, local compression, invisible beam, steel sheet