Innovation on advanced composite materials for strengthening and blast protection of historical masonry structures

Due to their light weight, high stiffness-to-weight and strength-to-weight ratios, and high resistance to environmental degradation, resulting in lower life-cycle costs, advanced composites materials, commonly known with the acronym FRP, are increasingly being considered for use in civil engineering applications, ranging from the retrofit and rehabilitation of buildings and bridges to the restoration and strengthening of historical-monumental masonry structures. Thanks to the recently published Italian FRP guidelines, CNR-DT 200/2004, by the Italian National Research Council, there has been an increasingly demand of their implementation for general strengthening and retrofitting applications as well as seismic mitigation of structures and infrastructures. This paper aims to provide a general overview of the Italian state of the art implementation of FRP materials in the last 20 years on historical structures, through different case studies, presenting the potentials of a new family of retrofitting materials made of ultra-high tensile strength steel filaments arranged in cords and knitted similarly to FRP sheets. It will also be briefly described an innovative system, based on FRP technology to protect structures from dynamic loads, with particular focus on blast events.