Experimental investigation on the seismic behavior of adobe walls retrofitted with palm meshes

Use of adobe materials is considered as a common construction method in rural and historic cities of developing countries. Compared to other conventional building materials, adobe offers some advantages such as eco-friendly features, local availability, easy application, cost-efficiency, and high thermal and sound insulation. However, the weak seismic performance of adobe buildings under past earthquakes has led to extensive economic losses and casualties. Therefore, retrofitting of such buildings and development of guidelines for their seismic design seem to be vital. In addition, retrofitting of adobe buildings with natural and traditional materials would be more desirable. Due to the critical role of walls as the main load bearing element in adobe buildings, their retrofitting would be of high priority. Towards this, the current study was aimed at utilizing palm fibers as a natural and sustainable material in lateral retrofitting of adobe walls. In total, six adobe wall panels, with dimensions of 1000×900×200 mm, including one control and five retrofitted specimens were tested under the combination of a constant vertical load and incremental lateral displacement reversals. The retrofitting technique involved external application of palm meshes plastered with a straw-mud mortar. The experimental parameter comprises dimensions of meshes, number of anchors on both sides of the walls, and arrangement of meshes. The test results indicated that using externally bonded fiber meshes can led to retaining the overall integrity and change the shear failure mode to a rocking/toe crushing. Further, the lateral strength, ductility factor, and energy dissipation capacity of wall were improved remarkably