Fibre reinforced mortars for the out-of-plane strengthening of masonry walls

Abstract

Unreinforced masonry buildings (URM) often suffer of local out-of-plane failure mechanisms of the walls during a seismic excitation. This study investigates the effectiveness of a relatively novel class of inorganic composite materials, namely Fibre Reinforced Mortars (FRM), for the out-of-plane strengthening of masonry walls. Three experimental tests by using a novel setup to perform out-of-plane tests on masonry panels, part of an enlarged ongoing testing campaign, are presented herein. The specimens are solid clay brick masonry walls subjected to compressive axial load and out-of-plane horizontal actions according to a “four-point bending test” scheme. Two specimens are reinforced before testing with FRM, one in single-side and another one in double-side configurations, while the third specimen is tested in the bare configuration. Experimental results are reported and discussed. The preliminary results attest that FRMs are effective in increasing the out-of-plane capacity of masonry walls and in postponing the activation of the out-of-plane failure mechanism.