Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of strengthening adobe houses with an arch roof
using polypropylene band (PP-band) mesh with or without tie-bars. To this end, an experimental analysis
was conducted on scale models of adobe houses. In one test, an arch roof was retrofitted with only a PPband
mesh. In the second test, in addition to being retrofitted with PP-band mesh, tie-bars were used for
horizontal support at roof level. These two PP-band retrofitted house models and house model with tiebars
only were subjected to sinusoid loading until the point of collapse or the capacity of the shaking
table was exceeded. Results collected during the analyses were significant in assessing the capability
of these retrofitting methods to support dynamic loads, increasing the collapse load, stiffness and ductility
and dissipate energy.
