This article presents experimental and numerical study of strengthening brick masonry walls loaded with service loads where openings are required to be made, the studied strengthening is made using steel wire mesh or near-surface mounted steel bars. The experimental program consisted of twelve unreinforced brick masonry walls loaded vertically by the service loads; six control walls were not strengthened, three walls were strengthened by steel wire mesh on both faces and steel bars were inserted around the required opening for the last three walls. Three control unstrengthened walls were not opened while openings were made in nine loaded walls; then the load was increased for all walls until failure. The experimental results showed that the applied strengthening methods managed to compensate the decrease of wall capacity due to opening. Numerical modelling and nonlinear analysis were made using finite element analysis software ANSYS v.15; the numerical results showed good agreement with the experimental results. Further, a parametric study was performed to explore the effect of several variables concerning aspects of the wall and strengthening materials. The obtained results demonstrate that the numerical approach can be used to study and design strengthening for load-bearing masonry walls in existing buildings in case it is required to make openings in the walls.

The use of hybrid GFRP and steel bars as main reinforcement increases the flexural capacity of T-section concrete beams and reduces ductility. Adding recycled rubber to the concrete mix would further enhance the ductility of the hybrid system. Evaluation of the concrete's flexural capacity and ductility is the main goal of the current investigation using normal concrete (NC) and rubberized recycled concrete (RRC). Eight T-beams have been experimentally investigated in this research, two beams were reinforced with steel bars and GFRP bars with zero percentage of crumb rubber (C.R). The remaining beams were reinforced with different combinations of GFRP and steel bars with rubberized concrete mixes with partial substitution of sand with recycled crumb rubber by (0%, 7.5%, 10%, and 12.5% replacements by volume) particle size 1.0 to 2.0 mm. The ductility index for the tested hybrid rubberized T-beams (HRTB) BRH1, BRH3a, BRH5, BRH2, BRH4, and BRH6, were higher than BH1 and BH2 by 28.2%, 35.47%, 65.38%, 23.76%, 30.04%, and 56.95% indicating that increasing the percentage of C.R. has a direct effect on increasing the ductility index. The ultimate failure load for the tested HRTB BRH1, BRH3a, and BRH5, decreased by 11.68%, 14.29%, and 17.47% compared to the hybrid T-beam BH1. The energy dissipation decreased for HRTB BRH1, BRH3a, BRH5, BRH2, BRH4 and BRH6 by 7.88%, 12.36%, 17.17%, 8.12%, 12.96%, and 18.28 compared to hybrid T-beams BH1 and BH2. This indicates that the existence of the very weak C.R. was not able to dissipate the energy properly within the concrete matrix. Good agreement was found between the numerical model and experimental results in terms of crack pattern, ultimate loads and deflections.

This research presents the numerical and experimental results of lateral cyclic loading applied on a two-story confined masonry structure utilizing local materials and standards. Two half-scale confined masonry structures were constructed using clay masonry units, confining columns, tie beams, and reinforced concrete slabs. The assemblies were tested up to failure using a displacement controlled loading methodology under vertical self-weight and lateral reversed cyclic loading. The walls of the assemblies have varying perforations (solid / windows / doors) to examine the influence of perforation on in-plane and out-of-plane performance. A strengthened assembly with an exterior layer of ferrocement has been used and this suggested upgrading approach enhanced the lateral resistance of the confined assembly by about (61–95%) while improving ductility and total energy absorbed by 27%. The maximum lateral drift at failure have been decreased to (23–31%), however the corresponding load for the first visible fracture have been raised by (150–175%). Furthermore, total failure has been delayed for the strengthened walls (all sides, particularly the perforated sides). Comparing distorted forms, fracture patterns, and capacity curves of finite element models included in this research yielded excellent agreement.