Tuff masonry is one of the most widely used materials in the South of Italy: a lot of either historical buildings and old constructions have been built using such a material available in that region. Such constructions often need to be repaired or strengthened especially for improving their seismic performance. FRP materials are generally suitable to be utilised for such a propose, because of their high strength and low weight. In particular, C-FRP sheets can be utilised for confining masonry columns in order to improve both strength and ductility under axial loads. Some experimental tests conducted at the Laboratory of Structures of the University of Salerno on both tuff elements and (scaled) columns are described in the present paper. The results of the first series of tests on tuff bricks point out the increase in terms of ultimate strength obtained for the confined specimens. The strength of confined specimens ranges generally between 2 or 3 times the one of the corresponding unconfined material, but such an increase is obtained for very large axial deformations. For this reason a suitable stress level has been proposed for assessing the available axial strength for the confined material whose stress-strain relationship is basically bilinear in shape. Such a conventional elastic stress has been pointed out in correspondence of the intersection between the two linear branches of the above mentioned bilinear relationship and can be proposed for design purpose. Correlation between the conventional elastic stress and the mechanical characteristics of the unconfined material and the C-FRP sheets has been calibrated on the experimental results. The second series of experimental tests deals with tuff masonry columns jacketed with the same C-FRP material utilised for the first series and tested under axial loads. The influence of mortar joints on the behaviour of the masonry columns has to be quantified; for this reason, various mortar joint arrangements between the bricks have been considered in order to simulate the behaviour of damaged masonry.

Experimental tests and theoretical models on tuff masonry bricks and columns confined with C-FRP sheets

FAELLA, Ciro;MARTINELLI, Enzo;PACIELLO, Sergio Orlando
2004-01-01

Abstract

Tuff masonry is one of the most widely used materials in the South of Italy: a lot of either historical buildings and old constructions have been built using such a material available in that region. Such constructions often need to be repaired or strengthened especially for improving their seismic performance. FRP materials are generally suitable to be utilised for such a propose, because of their high strength and low weight. In particular, C-FRP sheets can be utilised for confining masonry columns in order to improve both strength and ductility under axial loads. Some experimental tests conducted at the Laboratory of Structures of the University of Salerno on both tuff elements and (scaled) columns are described in the present paper. The results of the first series of tests on tuff bricks point out the increase in terms of ultimate strength obtained for the confined specimens. The strength of confined specimens ranges generally between 2 or 3 times the one of the corresponding unconfined material, but such an increase is obtained for very large axial deformations. For this reason a suitable stress level has been proposed for assessing the available axial strength for the confined material whose stress-strain relationship is basically bilinear in shape. Such a conventional elastic stress has been pointed out in correspondence of the intersection between the two linear branches of the above mentioned bilinear relationship and can be proposed for design purpose. Correlation between the conventional elastic stress and the mechanical characteristics of the unconfined material and the C-FRP sheets has been calibrated on the experimental results. The second series of experimental tests deals with tuff masonry columns jacketed with the same C-FRP material utilised for the first series and tested under axial loads. The influence of mortar joints on the behaviour of the masonry columns has to be quantified; for this reason, various mortar joint arrangements between the bricks have been considered in order to simulate the behaviour of damaged masonry.
2004
9788820736781
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11386/1063625
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