Experimental tests of Retrofitted and Unretrofitted Unreinforced Stone-in-Mud masonry walls done

The monotonic lateral pushover tests on retrofitted and unretrofitted unreinforced stone-in-mud masonry walls have been carried out on April 21, 2019. The experiment was done at the Institute of Engineering, Heavy Lab in Lalitpur.

The experiment falls under the “Seismic Safety and Resilience of Schools in Nepal (SAFER)” program which was attended by Professors from University of Bristol, Personnel from ARUP, Professors and Personnel from the Institute of Engineering and NSET personnel who designed and coordinated the test. Welded wire meshing was applied at key locations while gabion wire meshes was applied at the remaining locations on the wall to prevent local failure. Local materials and manpower experienced in stone-in-mud masonry walls were involved for the construction.

The objective of the test was to observe and quantify the out of plane behavior of stone in mud masonry walls. It was also intended to observe the qualitative effectiveness of the welded wire meshes in action as well as to capture the failure mechanism of stone walls with such retrofitting measure.

The test results showed a substantial increase in the lateral capacity of the wall upon retrofitting using the welded wire meshes. It was also observed that the walls could suffer much more deflection when retrofitted using the welded wire meshes. The quantitative data from this test and the qualitative results will be highly valuable in the future design and implementation of retrofitting works on walls of this nature.

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