Ancient masonry arches and vaults strengthened with TRM, SRG and FRP composites: Experimental evaluation

The arches had a span equal to 3.30 m, a rise equal to 0.83 m and were built with common Italian bricks regularly spacing out two bricks laid edge on (thickness of the arch 12 cm) with two bricks (one over the other) disposed in single leaf. Barrel vaults had the same geometry of the arches but were made with a single leaf. In all cases, an eccentric vertical load was applied at 1/4 of the span and was increased up to failure. The experimental results on unreinforced structures are compared with those obtained on the strengthened ones in terms of failure mode, maximum load, stiffness and ductility.