Experimental research on the behavior of masonry walls reinforced with dry-connected steel plate frames under axial compression

Abstract This paper conducted several experimental tests and theoretical analyses to present a comprehensive study on the behavior of dry-connected steel plate frame-reinforced brick walls under axial compression. One unreinforced brick wall, two brick walls reinforced with dry-connected steel plate frame, and one brick wall reinforced with steel strips were fabricated for axial compression tests. The experiments generally showed that steel plate frames effectively improved the structure's bearing capacity and axial stiffness and impeded its cracking. Increasing the thickness of steel plates further improved the bearing capacity but undermined the ductility of the composite wall. Besides, based on the buckling theory of steel plate and the existing calculation theory of masonry strength, this paper also proposed formulas for determining the bearing capacity of the composite wall. The calculations of formulas exhibited acceptable accuracy in comparison with the experimental results.