Shear and flexural behaviour of unreinforced masonry wallets with steel wire mesh

Unreinforced masonry structures are prone to severe damage and even collapse when subjected to seismic loading. Thus, these structures need to be retrofitted for withstanding earthquakes. This study presents a method for improving the shear and flexural behaviour of unreinforced masonry (URM) wallets by using steel wire mesh as a reinforcing material. Two different bricks (of clay and fly ash) were used for the construction of wallets. Steel wire mesh was placed in different layouts to determine the optimum quantity of reinforcement. Diagonal compression tests and four-point bending tests were carried out to investigate the in-plane and out-of-plane behaviour of the wallets, respectively. Shear capacity, flexural strength, and ductility of the wallets are also reported. Furthermore, cost-effective analysis was carried out to study the variation of strengthening cost with improvement in strength of the masonry wallets.