DANIEL TORREALVA1, PATRICIA SANTILLÁN2

1) Professor, Catholic University of Peru, Department of Engineering, dtorrea@pucp.pe

2) Part time Professor, Catholic University of Peru, Department of Engineering and Structural Leader of Cosapi, psantillan@pucp.edu.pe

This paper presents the theoretical and experimental results of a research that involves the flexural strength of two materials: adobe (mud bricks) masonry and polymeric geogrids. The experimental work was performed at the Catholic University of Peru, and involved flexural tests on full scale walls. Three adobe masonry walls were built and reinforced with geogrids on both faces. The walls were turned into horizontal position and two equal loads were applied at one-third of the span to avoid shear in the centre part. The theoretical and experimental bending moments lead to a mathematical expression for flexure design of this compound adobe wall-geogrid system.

Further theoretical research showed that the adobe should have a tensile strength in the elastic range, which becomes negligible in the ultimate flexural state. At flexural failure, the equilibrium is based in adobe compression stresses and geogrid tension force, similar to reinforced concrete behaviour.

Keywords: Adobe, geogrid reinforcement, flexural behavior, experiment