Long-term environmental effects on FRP-masonry bond

Abstract

The susceptibility of unreinforced brick masonry (URM) buildings to failure under earthquake loading is well known and was most recently illustrated by the sequence of earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2010 and 2011. There is also no doubt that retrofitting clay brick masonry walls with FRP strips can lead to significant increases in the earthquake resistance of URM buildings. However, the extent to which environmental effects reduce the FRP-masonry bond strength and hence the seismic capacity of FRP strength-ened walls remains unknown. In order to establish the long-term flexural behavior of FRP strengthened ma-sonry walls, the effects of temperature and moisture were investigated on the bond strength of FRP strips. This paper reports on the preliminary results of this on-going test.