Out of Plane Behavior of Calcareous Masonry Panels Strengthened by CFRP

This paper presents the results obtained by an experimental program carried out to evaluate the influence of externally bonded FRP composites on the out of plane behavior of masonry. To this aim two groups of samples were tested for static out-of-plane loads under different vertical load applying orthogonally to the mortar beds. Three panels Carbon fiber- Reinforced Masonry (CRM) were reinforced by one layer of carbon fiber-reinforcing system attached to the tension side of the wall, while the remaining unreinforced three (URM) were used as referring samples. The failure loads, collapse mode, mid-span deflection and fiber-debonding were measured. Based on the data obtained from the experimental program, it appears that the out-of-plane CFRP reinforcement tends to deeply decrease the out-of plane deflection, change the collapse mechanism, and increase enormously its out of plane resistance up to seven times respect to the URM panel.