Investigation on Mechanical Properties of Masonry Infill Wall Strengthened with ECC

Engineered Cementitious Composite (ECC) is an advanced composite material with strain-hardening and multiple-cracking behaviors. In this study, two types of ECC materials were troweled on masonry infill walls strengthened with expansion bolt and interfacial agent. The seismic performance of the unreinforced and the ECC reinforced masonry structures was evaluated by the reversed cyclic loading test. The results showed that the application of the ECC on the masonry infill walls can improve the ultimate bearing capacity (in plane), ductility, stiffness and accumulative energy dissipation of the structure. Compared with the masonry structure with one side reinforced by the ECC, the structure with both sides reinforced by the ECC could better improve the ultimate bearing capacity, stiffness and cumulative energy dissipation with little difference on the ductility improvement. Moreover, the expansion bolt and the interfacial agent used to improve the connection between the ECC and the masonry structure have the ability to greatly increase the mechanical properties of the structure under cyclic loading.