Numerical analysis of the in-plane behaviour of TRM-strengthened masonry walls

Abstract

Application of Fibre Reinforced Polymers (FRPs) for Externally Bonded Reinforcement (EBR) of masonry structures has received extensive attention during the past decade. FRPs are found to be hardly compatible with historical masonry. As an alternative, the use of innovative composite materials based on continuous fibres embedded in inorganic matrices (also referred as TRM) has found recent attention. However, only few information is available in the literature regarding the mechanical properties and effectiveness of TRMs for strengthening of masonry structures. This paper presents the numerical simulation of the nonlinear behaviour of TRM-strengthened masonry panels under in-plane actions. The modelling strategy is initially validated by simulating tensile response of TRMs and validation with available experimental results. The effect of different tension softening models on the tensile response ofTRMs is also investigated. The adopted modelling strategy is then used to predict the in-plane response of masonry panels strengthened withTRM composites under compressive and monotonic lateral-loading. The FE model predicts the key parameters in the behaviour of strengthened masonry, including the load-displacement response, crack development, failure mode and reinforcement contribution to the global performance. The results, presented and critically discussed, indicate that strengthening based on TRM significantly improves the performance of masonry walls under shear loading.