Experimental assessment of Textile Reinforced Sprayed Mortar strengthening system for brickwork wallettes

• Sprayed application of the mortar of Textile Reinforced Mortar (TRM).
• Study of the influence of mortar type and fibre grid type.
• Influence of the application technique and the strengthening configuration.
• Bending tests on wallettes strengthened with Textile Reinforced Sprayed Mortar.
• TRSM performance is comparable to that of manual application (TRM).

This work explores the feasibility of strengthening masonry with Textile Reinforced Mortar (TRM) by projecting it to save application time. Nineteen tests on masonry samples strengthened with TRM have been carried out to assess this new application method. Different mortars and fibre grids were considered for studying their influence and applicability with this new technique. Three points bending tests have been performed on the specimens to compare the flexural strength between cases with manually applied mortar (TRM) and sprayed application (TRSM) of the mortar layer. It was noticed that the strengthening mortar has a significant influence on the failure mode. Results show a remarkable (between 2 and 6 times more) productivity increase when using TRSM and a load-bearing capacity rise for the cases with larger grid spacing and projectable mortar when using TRSM instead of TRM. Greater ductility values were also observed for the TRSM cases in comparison with the analogue TRM cases (same grid and mortar).