StructuralQ I am currently involved with the design of an unreinforced masonry building retrofit. Could you point me toward resources concerning the seismic behavior of a reinforced shotcrete masonry wall? I am interested in learning more about the force (shear) transfer between the masonry/shotcrete interfaces.
Shotcrete is a placement method for concrete. Thus, seismic design for concrete is applicable to shotcrete placement. Here’s a link to an article in the Winter 2009 issue of Shotcrete magazine, titled “Seismic Retrofit of Historic Wing Sang Building,” that details the seismic retrofit of a brick building in Vancouver, BC, Canada: https://shotcrete.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2009Win_SCM01pg08-12.pdf.
A second article from 1999, “Seismic Reinforcing of Masonry Walls with Shotcrete,” also gives some input on the design: https://shotcrete.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/1999Fal_Snow.pdf. In general, the structural engineer must evaluate the condition of the existing masonry structure and determine whether the added shotcrete sections will be supplementing the existing capacity or providing the full resistance to seismic loads.
