Retrofitting of masonry vaults with composite materials

Externally Bonded composite materials are fast becoming the standard solution for structural strengthening, substituting traditional techniques (reinforced concrete, steel, etc). Polymer-reinforced fibres are now commonly applied to buildings for structural retrofitting purposes. These materials add greater tensile strength to structures, at the expense of a slight increase in weight. However, they also have other drawbacks as lack of water vapour permeability and brittle behaviour, which are not desired in the conservation of heritage buildings. Alternative to this composite materials are inorganic matrix-based composite materials which show advantageous properties and solve some of the drawbacks associated with organic matrices. This research presents long steel fibres and basalt textiles embedded in inorganic matrix to produce mortar-based composite. Initially, a mechanical characterization of the individual components and the resulting composite material was performed. Afterwards, real-scale (3m span) brick masonry vaults were strengthened by means of these composite materials and tested up to failure, in order to demonstrate their mechanical effectiveness. The experimental campaign demonstrates that composite mortar is an effective alternative to polymeric composites for the reinforcement of masonry brick vaults, which is physically compatible with masonry structures and easy to apply.