Re-strengthening of brickwork to reduce crack width
The main problem encountered in buildings with a traditional outside bearing wall of brickwork and a concrete inside bearing structure is caused by differences in the temperature and moisture-induced movement. Cracks may be discovered in walls and solutions have to be found. The fact that this kind of damage is repairable does not solve the question of whether the difference in temperature movement continues and if, after repair, new cracking occurs. These problems are encountered in De Adelaar, a historic Dutch building. They may worsen when the building is insulated for a new function as office building. People have to work close to the outer walls, which in wintertime will have quite a low temperature in the northern region of Europe. This means that the workers will radiate heat to the walls and they will feel chilled or will become ill. From the point of view of energy consumption, as well as the esthetical appeal of the brick exterior, the walls should be insulated on the inside rather than the outside, which causes larger temperature and hygral inter-element differences. An existing building has been researched with the assistance of a finite element model, which was recently developed for the analysis of creep, shrinkage and cracking in concrete and masonry. For this separate research, the wall is considered as a homogenous composite with global properties as if the bricks and mortar are modelled separately. A wall section is chosen in such a way that it is representative of the entire wall. Basic questions as, do dilatations help to prevent cracking, the type of insulation and can cracks be prevented or can they be prevented to snap to larger cracks by restrenghtening the brickwork by carbon fibre reinforced plastics, are of importance.
re-strengthening brickwork crack width cfrp