The growing need to secure existing masonry buildings and, in particular, Cultural Heritage in Italy and around the world, is driving the civil engineering industry in the search for new solutions that can combine the needs of static safety with those of conservation and respect for the original concepts of the historical heritage and that can offer high performance, durability, low invasiveness and low cost.
Recommended interventions include the effectiveness of connections, by inserting tie-rods, external hooping, suitable bracing between confluent walls, top kerbs, connection of floor slabs and roofs to masonry, increase of flexural and shear strength of masonry panels, possible introduction of new resisting elements, improvement of masonry quality by injection of hydraulic lime grouts, and insertion of non-invasive flexural-shear resisting elements for the masonry face.
In these areas, the use of high-durability FRP organic-matrix fiber-reinforced composites and FRCM-SRG inorganic-matrix composites with greater compatibility, reversibility, transpiration and eco-sustainability has become common and well-established practice, thanks in part to the presence of numerous scientific and experimental studies that have demonstrated their effectiveness and to current regulations.
The main types include carbon fiber FRP systems, FRCM systems consisting of alkali resistant nets in AR glass, basalt, carbon in natural hydraulic lime matrices and with pozzolanic reactivity, SRG systems consisting of galvanized UHTSS steel fabrics always in inorganic matrices, passive tie rods using helical stainless steel bars or basalt and carbon bars, anchoring systems using fiber connectors and non-invasive seismic improvement systems for exposed masonry.
Reinforcement of irregular stone masonry walls of a church located in Central Italy using the ANCHORSTEEL NET System
Structural reinforcement carried out on a 12th century mansion in masonry with the aim of a seismic improvement valued
Seismic improvement of wall faces for actions in the plane with mortars and reinforcing mesh
Anti-seismic structural reinforcements of masonry buildings with CFRP system
Structural improvement of masonry vaults with composite materials
