Seismic Retrofitting of Masonry structure with reduced PP-band Mesh Connectivity.

Abstract

Being common attraction for the people as economic viable solution for housing, unreinforced masonry (URM) construction has been economical and locally available in every part of the world with different types and form. Performance of URM masonry structures during different earthquake is still big question mark and has posed serious threats to human life in the past and future seismic disasters. The highest fatality rates during any earthquakes were always associated with masonry housing. Enhancing the performance of brick masonry in particular during the earthquake with material which will be cheap and having better performance during the earthquake have been dream of researcher and practicing engineer. The Polypropylene band (PP-band) retrofitting has been used for the retrofitting of masonry structures in many under developing countries. PP-band has been used as mesh on the walls with plaster coating. In the past behavior of PP-band is investigated during dynamic testing on small and full scale masonry houses. The PP-band applied on the masonry wall are connected at every intersection of the mesh. In the current research work an attempt was made by reducing the PP-band mesh connectivity for reaching the optimization in manner of time and cost for retrofitting of URM masonry structure. By varying these parameters we can propose a solution of PP-band retrofitting with less work force, price and duration by testing them in ¼ scale model on shake table test. Comparison of PP-band mesh performance having its connectivity at all points and with zero points has been made in damaged assessment of the structure.