Experimental Evaluation of Out-of-Plane Strength of Masonry Walls Retrofitted with Oriented Strand Board

Structural retrofitting is carried out as an economical alternative to demolishing and rebuilding existing masonry structures. Retrofitting is provided to offer structural upgrade and damage-control. This paper presents the application of oriented strand board type 3 (OSB/3) for retrofitting unreinforced masonry walls. Out-of-plane bending test in form of four-point loading was performed on six masonry walls. The test results show that OSB/3 can considerably increase the load and flexure capacity by (1.4 & 1.8), limiting-toughness by (1.6 & 2.4) and overall-toughness by (16 & 10) times compared to plain wall subjected to out-of-plane loading for (single & double-sided) application respectively.