The papers presents the results of an experimental program and provides valuable information regarding the behaviour of structural masonry walls built up using ceramic blocks with hollows, which represents a very common system for low-rise residential buildings, up to 4 stories, depending on the seismic acceleration on site. A number of six masonry walls where tested in bear state being subjected to constant vertical loading and to cyclic in-plane horizontal loads. The main objective was to determine the shear capacity for unreinforced masonry walls and reinforced masonry walls. The experimental results were also useful to determine the contribution of the reinforcing of the masonry walls with concrete columns. The comparison between unreinforced masonry and reinforced masonry has a great importance due to the fact that the Romanian Seismic Standards have imposed the reinforcement in seismic areas for building with more than 1 storey. Further studies will be conducted on strengthening the masonry walls using FRP materials.
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