Abstract: The vulnerability of unreinforced masonry walls (UMW) to seismic forces led to the use of horizontal reinforcement to improve the performance of the masonry walls and to increase (as thought) the resistance of the walls to horizontal forces. There is no doubt that the use of horizontal reinforcement enhances the post crack performance of the walls, but there has been a debate of whether the use of horizontal reinforcement increases or does not affect the overall shear resistance of the masonry walls. An experimental program was designed to examine the effect of horizontal reinforcement in bond beams and its distribution on the shear resistance of the walls. The results showed that the use of reinforcing rebars in bond beams had no significant effect on the maximum shear resistance of the walls. Also, distributing the same area of reinforcement over the height of the walls did not affect the maximum resistance of the walls but affected the crack pattern. Statistical analysis methods were used to verify the obtained results.
Keywords: Shear resistance, masonry, bond beams.
Title: Experimental Study on the Effect of Horizontal Reinforcement on the Shear Strength of Concrete Masonry Walls
Author: Ahmed Faisal Oan, Nigel Shrive
International Journal of Civil and Structural Engineering Research
ISSN 2348-7607 (Online)
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