Experimental Investigation on Pre-stressed Polypropylene-band. (2017) - Sugijopranoto, Andreas
Abstract: Earthquakes have resulted in fatalities caused by the collapsed of the walls. Increasing the ductility of the masonry walls will reduce the numbers of victims. To increase the ductility capacity, Polypropylene-Band (PP-band) is chosen because it is affordable for the common people and easy to find. PP-band meshes were installed on the wall surfaces, then covered by mortar plaster to form a composite. In order to make PP-band function immediately to sustain tensile stress, the pre-stressed PP-band was used. It was installed by giving initial tension and twisting. To examine the influence of the pre-stressed PP-band to increase the ductility of walls, flexural tests were conducted on mortar blocks 15 x 15 x 56 cm3. The PP-band was set 20 mm from the edge of the block, showing the real condition of the wall plaster. Two kinds of PP-bands were used, 9 and 11 mm width. The first specimen group was PP-band with initial tension, and the second one was PP-band which twisted. This experiment followed the ASTM C78 guideline. The result of the experiment showed that mortar block with PP-band had higher ultimate strength. PP-band with initial stress could resist higher elongation compared with twisted PP-band.