Resumo (PT):
Abstract (EN):
Past and more recent seismic events worldwide clearly showed that a crucial issue for lifesafety and loss reduction due to earthquakes for existing reinforced concrete (RC) buildings is
related to the out-of-plane (OOP) collapse of infill masonry walls. In literature, few studies
addressed this paramount topic, above all about the proposal of strengthening strategies to
prevent the infills’ collapse. This paper presents an experimental work about the assessment of
possible strengthening solutions designed to mitigate or prevent the out-of-plane collapse of
masonry infills in existing RC buildings. Three nominally identical full-scale one-bay-one-story
RC frames were built and infilled with a thin masonry wall made up of horizontal hollow clay
bricks. The first specimen was representative of the enclosure of a typical existing RC building
in the Mediterranean region in its “as-built” condition. The remaining two specimens were
strengthened against the out-of-plane collapse by means of two different strengthening techniques based on the application of innovative systems made up of high-ductility mortar plaster
and fibre-reinforced polymer nets. All the tests consisted in the application of a semi-cyclic
(loading-unloading-reloading) history of imposed displacements in the OOP direction by
means of small pneumatic jacks through a uniform distributed load. Experimental results are
shown in terms of OOP force-displacement responses, deformed shapes and damage evolution.
In the end, the results of the tests are compared to assess the effectiveness of the selected
strengthening techniques and to provide a support towards the choice of the best strategies for
future further investigations and applications.
Language:
English
Type (Professor's evaluation):
Scientific
No. of pages:
13