Environmentally friendlier strengthening of masonry structure using direct greening system: an experimental study

The green wall benefits from existing buildings have ever more attracted the attention of the scientific community. Past studies mainly focus on the ecological and environmental advantage of existing structures, while few works address the structural benefits of the green wall. In the present study, the structural impact of the typical direct greening system referred to masonry structures is assessed. This experimental program consists of direct shear, flexural bending and in-plane test to evaluate the effect of green walls strengthening effect on the basic characteristic of masonry. For the in-plane test, wall dimensions were 900 × 75 0 × 105 mm³ and consisted of 10 brick rows of 4 bricks each. The horizontal load was applied by means of a hydraulic actuator. Results show that after the initial breaking point, the post-peak strength is higher for green walls strengthened panels compared with that of non-retrofitted masonry panel. Even though the green wall strengthened masonry was not showing any improvement in the initial strength, it shows the reasonable improvement in residual strength. Also, it improves the structural behavior in terms of stiffness and energy dissipation capacity. Considering the overall performance, green wall strengthening can effectively improve the residual structural performance of masonry houses. Additional structural performance, to encourage retrofitting, inexpensive and easy to implement technical solutions are desirable. A direct greening system satisfies these requirements.