PSI - Issue 64

Emilia Meglio et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 64 (2024) 1911–1918 Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000 – 000

1913

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Fig. 1. Manufacturing of unreinforced wall (a), mechanical anchors used for the reinforced wall (b) and manufacturing of reinforced wall samples (c).

2.2. Preliminary tensile tests on hemp braids The hemp braids used to create the hemp mesh were subjected to tensile tests before the execution of the mechanical tests on the wall samples. The uniaxial tensile tests were performed on three specimens of hemp braids having diameter of 2 mm and overall length of 70 cm, which was based on end anchor lengths of 10 cm and a test reference length of 50 cm. The tests were carried out using a universal displacement-controlled machine that returned the force displacement diagram of the braids. The hemp braids showed an average value of tensile strength of around 60 MPa, as shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2. Tensile strengths of hemp braids with diameter of 2 mm.

2.3. Compressive tests The samples were subjected to a mechanical compression test using a universal displacement-controlled machine with a load capacity of 1000 kN. Prior the execution of the tests, three displacement transducers were placed on each side of the specimens to monitor the vertical displacements and another one was used to monitor the horizontal displacements (Fig. 3).