Environmentally friendlier strengthening of masonry structure using direct greening system: an experimental study

摘要

The green wall benefits from existing buildings have ever more attracted the attention of the scientific community. Pastrnstudies mainly focus on the ecological and environmental advantage of existing structures, while few works address thernstructural benefits of the green wall. In the present study, the structural impact of the typical direct greening system referredrnto masonry structures is assessed. This experimental program consists of direct shear, flexural bending and in-plane testrnto evaluate the effect of green walls strengthening effect on the basic characteristic of masonry. For the in-plane test, wallrndimensions were 900 × 75 0 × 105 mm3 and consisted of 10 brick rows of 4 bricks each. The horizontal load was applied byrnmeans of a hydraulic actuator. Results show that after the initial breaking point, the post-peak strength is higher for greenrnwalls strengthened panels compared with that of non-retrofitted masonry panel. Even though the green wall strengthenedrnmasonry was not showing any improvement in the initial strength, it shows the reasonable improvement in residual strength.rnAlso, it improves the structural behavior in terms of stiffness and energy dissipation capacity. Considering the overall performance,rngreen wall strengthening can effectively improve the residual structural performance of masonry houses. Additionalrnstructural performance, to encourage retrofitting, inexpensive and easy to implement technical solutions are desirable. Arndirect greening system satisfies these requirements.