ABSTRACT

The specimen, reproducing the typical stair block element of an existing building, was designed to resist the vertical loads only. The geometry of the scaled

1 INTRODUCTION

A new technique for transforming existing R/C walls into seismic resistant shear walls is presented in this paper. The proposed solution is based on the use of high performance jacket made of high strength steel mesh, having a tensile resistance higher than 1200 MPa, embedded in a thin layer of high performance fiber reinforced concrete, having a compressive strength higher than 150 MPa. By using these high performance materials, the jacket thickness can be significantly reduced (30-40 mm). In this paper, the proposed technique is validated by means of an experimental test on a 1:3 scaled shear wall. The experimental specimen was designed by reference to an existing three storey R/C building, which was proportioned to resist the vertical loads only. The high performance jacket was designed to entirely resist the seismic actions. The experimental results showed the efficiency of the technique in increasing the structure bearing capacity and ductility.