Strengthening of adobe houses with arch roofs using tie-bars and polypropylene band mesh

• Effects of PP-band and tie-bars retrofitting have been experimentally investigated.
• Arch with only tie-bars was clearly shown a collapse pattern with the thrust force.
• Arch with PP-band retrofitting maintained wall integrity for large deformations.
• Presence of tie-bars in PP-band retrofitting improves this performance of the arch.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of strengthening adobe houses with an arch roof using polypropylene band (PP-band) mesh with or without tie-bars. To this end, an experimental analysis was conducted on scale models of adobe houses. In one test, an arch roof was retrofitted with only a PP-band mesh. In the second test, in addition to being retrofitted with PP-band mesh, tie-bars were used for horizontal support at roof level. These two PP-band retrofitted house models and house model with tie-bars only were subjected to sinusoid loading until the point of collapse or the capacity of the shaking table was exceeded. Results collected during the analyses were significant in assessing the capability of these retrofitting methods to support dynamic loads, increasing the collapse load, stiffness and ductility and dissipate energy.