Abstract
The adoption of effective strengthening techniques of historical constructions is one of the most widely debated aspects in structural engineering. Within this topic, the application of steel fiber reinforced mortar (SFRM) has been recently proposed as a low invasive and effective way to obtain a considerable structural benefit in the safety of existing masonry structure. To this purpose, in this paper the experimental results obtained on a circular masonry arches are presented. The considered specimens, subjected to a vertical increasing static load, is tested in the unstrengthened and strengthened configurations, and is part of a wider experimental campaign. After presenting and discussing the experimental results, they are compared with those relative to numerical simulations conducted by means of a discrete macro-element (DME) strategy, based on a simple mechanical scheme, able to model the nonlinear behavior of masonry structures with a limited computational effort. Such an approach is here extended to model the SFRM strengthening technique accounting for the main failure mechanisms associated to the combined presence existing masonry and the additional strengthening layer applied at the intrados of the arch. Numerical and experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed retrofitting strategy both in terms of bearing capacity and increase of ductility.
Highlights
Masonry arch bridges still in use in the world roadway and railway network represent an important portion of the entire bridge stock and most of them were built more than 100 years ago
5 CONCLUSION In this paper, the destructive experimental tests of a masonry arch have been reported
A simplified numerical strategy based on a Discrete Macro-Element approach, previously adopted for modelling masonry structures, and other strengthening techniques, is here applied for the first time to model arches reinforced with steel fiber reinforced mortar (SFRM)
Summary
Masonry arch bridges still in use in the world roadway and railway network represent an important portion of the entire bridge stock and most of them were built more than 100 years ago. The use of reinforced mortar with short steel fibers as strengthening system applied to concrete or masonry has caught the attention of many researchers. This composite material has high value of compressive and tensile strengths with a good tensile ductility due to the steel fibers. The HiStrA software based on a discrete macro-model, already available in the literature, has been used for the numerical analysis that show good agreement with the experimental results
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