Fiber Reinforced Mortar Mixtures for the Reconstruction and Rehabilitation of Existing Masonry Structures

摘要

The majority of the world's architectural heritage encompasses unreinforced masonrystructures, which are generally strong enough for the gravity loads, but are vulnerableagainst unexpected magnitudes of external out-of-plane loads and environmentaleffects. The recent trend of rehabilitating and strengthening unreinforced masonrywith fiber reinforced polymer laminates, while effective, is not desirable in scenarioswhere aesthetics are important. Thus, there is a need for an equally effective yetaesthetically pleasing methodology. In this paper, the use of fiber-reinforced-mortars(FRMs) is proposed for masonry rehabilitation and reconstruction applications. Twotypes of fibers are considered; polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers and novel organicfibers, such as corn silks. Several specimens with different type, size and volumefraction of fibers are tested in compression and flexure. Mixture proportions and thetested mechanical properties of each mixture are gathered in the form of a database.While the study is ongoing and the results are preliminary, it is found that certainvolume fractions of PVA fibers are very effective in improving the toughness,ductility and durability of mortars. It is also found that corn silk FRMs show greatpotential for inexpensive and sustainable means to strengthen masonry structures.