Performance of concrete masonry prisms filled with steel fibre reinforced grout

Compressive strength of concrete masonry filled with grout is adversely affected by the incompatible lateral expansion of the grout fill and the masonry shell. By confining the grout laterally significant improvement in the compressive strength of masonry is achieved. Various designs of lateral reinforcement were tried by several researchers in the past. A simple method of adding steel fibres into the grout mix as an alternative to lateral reinforcement design is examined in this paper. It is shown that this approach is superior to other attempts reported in the literature provided the grout is compacted by the needle vibration technique.