IN-PLANE BEHAVIOR OF CFRP RETROFITTED MASONRY: EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL ASSESSMENT

ROUGIER, VIVIANA; LUCCIONI, BIBIANA MARÍA

Brick and Masonry Research

Nova Science Publisher

Año: 2012; p. 93 - 132

Masonry buildings are designed to serve a certain lifetime. However, there are several masonry buildings that have been damaged in a shorter time than it was expected, because of different external actions like earthquakes, impact loads, changes in their use or aggressive agents. Moreover, there are many historical buildings that should be preserved as cultural heritage. Research activities carried out a few years ago concerning the use of fiber reinforced polymers as external reinforcement of masonry walls have shown that this system considerably improves structural stability with a minor impact over foundations. The use of polymeric fiber composites has also proved to be an efficient repairing technique for historical buildings. However, different aspects of this retrofitting system should still be analyzed. This analysis involves placement techniques, anchorage length, amount and layout of the reinforcement, failure modes of the reinforced element and the behaviour of damaged and even collapsed and then repaired masonry elements. This chapter is concerned with the in-plane mechanical behaviour of solid clay masonry panels and the same panels but reinforced or repaired with carbon fiber reinforced polymer laminates externally bonded to the wall surface. The experimental program involves; compression normal to bed joints and diagonal compression tests on unreinforced, reinforced and damaged and then repaired panels. Numerical simulation is performed using an existing coupled damaged-plasticity model that is calibrated with the experimental results obtained by the authors. Such model allows simulating the behaviour of masonry elements using the mechanical properties of constitutive materials and their layout. First a summary of the main characteristics of the mechanical behaviour of unreinforced and retrofitted masonry, subjected to in plane loads is presented. Then the experimental tests and their results are discussed and contrasted with existing design models. After that, the numerical model is summarized and the results of several simulations carried out to verify the efficiency of the reinforcement with carbon fiber reinforced polymers as a retrofitting system for masonry elements are presented. Finally the behaviour of full scale masonry walls externally reinforced with bonded carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) sheets and subjected to in plane shear load are numerically reproduced using the same numerical model.