Title: Improve the behaviour of ancient limestone walls using mortar with glass fibre under cyclic loads

Authors: Ghada Al Esrawy; Hala Hasan

Addresses: International University for Science and Technology (IUST), Ghabab, Damascus, Syria ' HIESR, Damascus, Syria

Abstract: Masonry buildings represent an important part of the human heritage worldwide and preservation of these old structures is one of the priorities of both private owners and the authorities. Masonry structures suffer from their inappropriate performance under extreme loads such as earthquakes and the retrofitting operations require correct control of the quality of the original mortar. Indeed, the use of cementations repairing material instead lime joint mortar leads to the apparition of cracks on the stone-mortar interfaces. In the present work, an experimental program was first conducted to study the effect of the joint mortar and limestone qualities on the cyclic performance of masonry walls. Fifty mortars were prepared using available local pozzolanic powders, recycled brick and glass fibres at different contents and tested to achieve the optimal mix design. One layer and multi-layers masonry prisms were built using glass fibre reinforced mortars to assess the overall performance under uniaxial and flexural loadings. Numerical analysis was performed using a micro-mechanical model to validate the obtained experimental results. In addition to the results obtained in this work, the results of other tests available in the literature were also validated. The obtained results showed a clear enhancement in the overall seismic behaviour and the ductility by using the glass fibre mortar.

Keywords: lime mortar; glass fibre; masonry; cyclic loads.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMRI.2025.149800

International Journal of Masonry Research and Innovation, 2025 Vol.10 No.6, pp.572 - 583

Received: 31 Jan 2023
Accepted: 11 Dec 2023
Published online: 13 Nov 2025 *

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