Experiments on Mechanical Performance of Tibetan Rubble Stone Walls Retrofitted with BFRP Grids

Two groups of Tibetan rubble stone walls, each with four pieces, were tested under compressive loading and low cyclic loading, respectively, in order to study the mechanical performance of the walls retrofitted with basalt fiber reinforced polymer (BFRP) grids. These tests focus on the mechanical behavior, failure modes, load carrying capacity, energy dissipation capacity, and stiffness degradation of the walls. The experimental results demonstrate that the rubble stone walls retrofitted with BFRP grids showed slower crack development compared with the un-retrofitted walls under the same compressive load. The measured average compressive strength of the rubble stone walls retrofitted with BFRP grids was about 2.72 times that of the un-retrofitted walls. The typical compressive failure mode of the rubble stone walls retrofitted with BFRP grids was BFRP grids rupture followed by out-of-plane buckling failure. Meanwhile, the rubble stone walls retrofitted with BFRP grids showed higher energy dissipation capacity and shear strength than the un-retrofitted rubble stone walls, and the measured average shear strength increased by 74.3%. Under low cyclic loading the rubble stone walls retrofitted with BFRP grids showed BFRP grids rupture along the diagonal cracks followed by shear failure.