SEISMIC RETROFIT OF STRUCTURAL MASONRY USING A FERROCEMENT OVERLAY.

A large number of older masonry buildings that were originally designed with little or no provision for lateral loading can be found in most areas of the country. The risk represented by this building stock in earthquake prone regions can be significantly reduced by an appropriate structural upgrading or retrofit procedure. This paper describes the needs for various levels of retrofit and a brief discussion of the methods used is included as well as a comparison of these procedures based on research and actual earthquake or shaking table performance. The main thrust of the paper centers about those procedures involving thin reinforced coatings and, in particular, a new process using a thin layer of heavily reinforced ferrocement.