Behavior of Masonry Assemblies With and Without GFRP and TRM Strengthening Under Static Inplane Loading

The seismic events recently occurred all over the world and, in particular, in India \nhave shown the high vulnerability of particular classes of buildings. The damage of structural \nmasonry elements is one of the most widespread harming injuries and cause of loss of \nserviceability and seismic capacity for a building. The damage suffered by these masonry \nelements has laid emphasis to strengthen them with appropriate reinforcing systems in order \nto achieve an upgrading to the necessary seismic and energy dissipation capacity. Different \nStrengthening techniques have been proposed and studied during, with particular on to the \ntype of materials, system configuration with respect to the element that is to be strengthened, \ndifficulties in the process of application and effectiveness of the reinforcement. In the last \nyears, though different studies have been carried out in this field, many issues regarding the \nmethods to evaluate the actual behaviour of these techniques, and their effectiveness in the \nimprovement of seismic behaviour of the elements to which they are applied, are still open. \nIn the present study the structural behaviour of unreinforced masonry assemblages \nwithout strengthening and with GFRP and TRM (Textile Reinforced Mortar) strengthening is \nstudied. The assessment of the overall increase of capacity of the strengthened masonry \nassemblages is performed. first of all, the study is focused on the investigation of the \nmechanical characteristics of the strengthening system in itself. In fact, the structural \nbehaviour of an externally applied strengthening system for masonry assemblages is \nexamined. There are two reinforcing techniques considered in the present research, the first \none is GFRP strengthening and the second one is TRM strengthening in which mortar layers \nincorporate a PP reinforcement in the form of grid. Both the GFRP and PP reinforcements are \nexternally applied to the masonry assemblages. The mechanical behaviour of the parent \nmaterials such as brick, mortar is assessed and then the behaviour of assemblages under \ncompression and shear loading is assessed through laboratory tests and constitutive laws can \nbe proposed to characterize the reinforced mortar mechanical behaviour. The experimental \ncharacterization of the presented system is followed by and validated through numerical \nmodelling and simulation of its mechanical behaviour.