Timber-Masonry Composite Systems For Retrofit Of Unreinforced Masonry Wall

The need for developing new and sustainable retrofit techniques is the consequence of an increasing interest in the preservation of old construction. The global acceptance of any retrofit techniques for unreinforced masonry (URM) often depends on the availability, economy and ease of application of the proposed technique. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the possibility to adopt timber-based retrofit techniques considering that timber is economical, can be easily sourced around the globe and can be considered as a sustainable material. In this paper, the outcome of an experimental campaign to evaluate the flexural performance (out-ofplane load capacity and deflection) of oriented strand board (OSB) timber-masonry composite wall is presented. The experiments involved subjecting both plain URM and timber-masonry composite wall to out-of-plane loading using quasi-static (monotonic) loading scheme. The maximum load and out-of-plane displacement causing a full cracked state in the plain wall was observed. These values were compared to that of timber-masonry composite to estimate the efficiency of the proposed retrofit techniques. The results show a substantial improvement in the out-of-plane performance of the wall retrofitted.