Resistance of Membrane Retrofit Masonry Walls to Lateral Pressure

Mitigation techniques are currently being sought to ensure public safety in the event of intentional or accidental explosions. Building material fragmentation is a major cause of human injury during such events. One of the most common methods of construction in buildings is the use of masonry walls however; these walls are extremely vulnerable to blast pressure resulting in collapse, fragmentation, and severe injury to occupants. Blast tests and computational finite element models have shown significant improvement in the behavior of these walls when retrofitted with polymer or metallic membranes. But the cost of blast tests and high fidelity computational models make them impractical for day-to-day design. The research presented in this book developed resistance functions for three different scenarios of membrane retrofit unreinforced concrete masonry walls to lateral pressure. These functions were further coupled with single degree of freedom systems to predict the wall response to blast loads. This book provides a practical tool for the design of membrane retrofit masonry walls exposed to lateral pressures such as wind and blast.