ABSTRACT
Abstract Aspects relating to the shear and flexural strength of masonry walls in earthquake zones are presented. To mitigate seismic strength and ductility deficiencies of masonry walls in California, carbon overlays were investigated as a retrofit and repair technique. Five tests of one story high masonry walls were carried out, three in-plane or shear wall tests and two out-of-plane or flexural tests of unreinforced walls. The shear wall tests involved an 'as-built' shear wall, a repaired wall and a retrofitted wall. The flexural tests involved retrofit and strengthening of two unreinforced masonry walls. The experimental results show that significant strength and deformation capacity increases can be achieved with carbon overlays. Keywords: Masonry walls, seismic retrofit, carbon overlays, shear walls, advanced composites.
