ABSTRACT
Masonry is a common and widely used building material in construction field as, it is affordable with various structural and environmental benefits. A masonry structure behaves very efficiently under gravity loading but its performance under horizontal loading is always a matter of great concern for the researchers. In the proposed experimental study, performance of masonry walls strengthened by using a newly developed plastic grid system by waste PET water bottles has been studied. Out of the plane behavior, In-plane behavior of controlled and strengthened samples have been studied and compared for the parameters such as Load-deflection curve, energy dissipation, stiffness and degradation. The failure patterns of all the samples used in the study have been analyzed comparatively. The wall samples strengthened with PET grid inhibits very encouraging results as compare to un-strengthened specimens especially in diagonal compression testing. The energy absorption capacity of the PET sample is much higher than an unreinforced sample. A plastic grid made up of PET water bottles not only provides an effective and affordable retrofitting solution but also saves the environment.
