Out-of-Plane Flexural Performance of GFRP-Reinforced Masonry Walls

The objective of this paper is to assess the out-of-plane flexural performance of masonry walls that are reinforced with glass fiber-reinforced polymers (GFRPs) rods, as an alternative for steel rebars. Eight 1 m×3 m full-scale walls were constructed using hollow concrete masonry units and tested in four-point bending with an effective span of 2.4 m between the supports. The walls were tested when subjected to increasing monotonic loads up to failure. The applied loads would represent out-of-plane loads arising from wind, soil pressure, or inertia force during earthquakes. One wall is unreinforced; another wall is reinforced with customary steel rebars; and the other six walls are reinforced with different amounts of GFRP reinforcement. Two of the GFRP-reinforced walls were grouted only in the cells where the rods were placed to investigate the effect of grouting the empty cells. The force-deformation relationship of the walls and the associated strains in the reinforcement were monitored throughout the tests. The relative performance of different walls is assessed to quantify the effect of different design variables. The range of GFRP reinforcement ratios covered in the experiments was used to propose a capacity diagram for the design of FRP-reinforced masonry walls similar to that of reinforced concrete elements.