A scheme for strengthening brick walls of low strength with high strength steel wire and poly- mer mortar jacket is proposed

and two pseudo-static tests of a strengthened masonry wall and another un- strengthened one are performed to verify the effectiveness of the strengthening scheme.Such seismic per- formances as the failure modes

ultimate strengths

hysteretic characteristics

energy dissipation capacity

and stiffness degradation of the two walls are studied

and the formula for calculating the ultimate shear strength of strengthened brick walls is put forward.The experimental results show that the seismic perfor- mances of strengthened walls are improved significantly by the strengthening scheme with increased ulti- mate shear strength

enhanced ductility

delayed degradation of stiffness

and upgraded capacity of energy dissipation.