Numerical analysis of masonry shear walls strengthened with CFRP sheets

This thesis forms a part of a research program which investigates the application of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) sheets to strengthen masonry shear walls with openings.; Numerical models were prepared for four partially-grouted reinforced concrete masonry walls with window openings tested at the University of Alberta. The models were mainly established using two dimensional (2D) 4-node bilinear plane stress quadrilateral elements with reduced integration and hourglass control to simulate the behaviour of the specimens, which were subjected to the combination of constant axial loading and monotonically increasing lateral loading.; The results of the simulations were verified against the test results and relatively good agreement was found. Both the test results and numerical outputs indicated that lateral capacity and ductility of the masonry shear walls have been substantially increased because of CFRP strengthening. Conclusions were drawn based on the comparisons and discussions. Suggestions were proposed for future research.