Blast response of GFRP-strengthened infill masonry walls

Recent spurt in terrorist activities throughout the globe have drawn the attention of engineers and scientists to the vulnerability of buildings and infrastructure to blast loads. The failure of infill masonry walls has been widely witnessed even in low magnitude blasts. The failure of masonry often leads to flying debris resulting in loss of life and disabilities/injury to a large number of people. This study focuses on the performance of strengthening scheme for infill masonry walls using GFRP sheets against blast loads. Strengthened walls were tested against blast loads for the evaluation of the out-of-plane performance of strengthened walls as against the unreinforced masonry (URM) walls. The test results have been compared with the blast analysis performed using ANSYS-AUTODYN. Some parametric studies of field interest were also carried out for understanding the behavior of strengthened walls against blast loads and deriving some useful conclusions. The numerical simulation technique can provide a theoretical reference for the design of walls and may help in reducing the requirement of extensive testing. The most significant parameter for assessing the severity of damage in structures under blast loads is the scaled distance. It has been demonstrated that the use of GFRP composites with proper end anchorage offers great potential for the retrofitting of URM infill walls to resist low or moderate blast loads and contain flying debris.