Experimental and analytical study of TRM strengthened brickwork walls under eccentric compressive loading

The strengthening of load-bearing masonry walls against out-of-plane failure is needed to enhance the life cycle of existing buildings in a sustainable way. In this work, the efficiency of Textile Reinforced Mortar (TRM) for the strengthening of masonry walls is shown by means of an experimental campaign on full scale brick masonry walls. In addition, this campaign has allowed the study of the influence of different mortar and fibre types and the possible benefit of using anchors to improve the connection between the walls and the external reinforcement. The application of TRM has provided an increase of over 100% of the initial load bearing capacity under eccentric axial load. Moreover, a stiffer and more homogeneous behaviour is noticed when TRM is applied. An analytical method to calculate the ultimate axial–bending combination for TRM strengthened brick masonry walls, in agreement with the experiments, is presented.