SEISMIC STRENGTHENING OF STONE MASONRY WALLS WITH GLASS FIBER REINFORCED POLYMER STRIPS AND MECHANICAL ANCHORAGES

A comprehensive description of the test program, including the innovative test setup and results and strengthening design procedure for out-of-plane behavior of masonry walls, developed based on experimental evidence, is presented. The study includes an assessment of the most influential bonding factors and their effects on an out-of-plane design model for strengthened masonry walls. Compressive tests on mortar-masonry cubic specimens indicate an average compressive strength of 1.30 MPa. Tests showed that increased spacing of the anchorages gives rise to debonding failure, while decreased spacing may lead to collapse due to masonry crushing. It is also found that maximum GFRP strain at collapse exceeded 8% in all specimens that presented realistic failure modes. Maximum composite force showed that no significant dependency on the anchorage spacing for the spacing range considered.