Masonry Wall Panels

[civeng80]

I have a portal framed building which is now about 30 years old. Span about 26m and portal frame centres at 8.1m. It has wall panels to about 2.2m high, 2 skins at 90mm each with a 50 mm cavity.

On top it has girts and metal sheeting.

Basically it is very weak wall and a small impact causes damage to the wall.

Any ideas by anyone on how to stiffen or modify the wall to improve the situation?

 

[concretemasonry]

What are you trying to improve? shear? flexure? water pentration?

You have a double wythe brick panels with a 2" cavity. Do you have any details on the bonding or method, if any, of tieng the wythes together?

If it is a question of localized impact, a coating could be used depending on the projectiles anf the type of brick. If general resistance, then gouting the cavity could be a possibility.

 

[civeng80]

Vehicles sometimes impact ever so slightly and cause damege to the wall. Large chunks of wall have to be removed and replaced. So its just the flexural strength that need improving. Water pentration is no problem. Just the strength

 

[msquared48]

I would consider:

1. Grouting the 2" cavity; Inserting vertical steel if possible - horizontal is probably not.
2. Adding a wood stud wall at the inside of the brick wall;
3. Adding thru the wall ties on a 4" grid each way, each tied from an exterior steel plate to the wood stud wall with a 1/2" thru-rod.
4. Adding vehicle wheel barriers in front of the wall.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[civeng80]

Thanks Mike

Grouting 2" wall thought of that would certainly stiffen it.

Adding wood stud wall tied to wall, probably not going to do much for the extra cost of doing so.

Vehicle wheel barriers cannot be done because of the operations.

Cheers !

 

[patswfc]

How about adding addition steel to the existing frame that can be used to break up the wall into smaller and therefore stronger panels.

Span a beam along the top of the wall between the portal frames and a wind post at mid span that ties into this beam.
This will significatly increase the strength of the wall although it would require a fair amount of work on site.

 

[civeng80]

Thanks all ! Pretty good answers from all. Maybe the best way is to demolish wall and replace with concrete precast panels.