Green advanced technologies for the retrofitting of masonry structures
Unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings constitute more than 70% of the existing building stock worldwide and make up the vast majority of the world’s cultural and architectural heritage. Although masonry has proven to be a highly versatile and durable construction material, much of the existing building stock in Europe and developing countries are non-engineered URM buildings, often built with weak materials and following poor construction practices. As a result, the majority of the existing building stock is in dire need of structural rehabilitation and strengthening. Traditional strengthening and rehabilitation techniques include grout or epoxy injections, crack stitching, surface overlays with mesh-reinforced concrete, chicken-wire or reinforced plaster, reinforced concrete jacketing as well as external/internal post tensioning. However, all of these techniques can affect significantly the dynamic response characteristics of the structure and can be costly, labour-intensive and highly obtrusive. In recent years, the use of advanced composite materials in civil engineering applications has increased exponentially, and the various retrofitting solutions that have been developed based on the implementation of these materials have proven to be very effective. However, the high performance of these advanced materials would not be effectively exploited on the less demanding masonry structures and the high material and installation costs would render them prohibitive in most European and developing countries. The proposed project aims to develop a novel strengthening solution that uses natural fibre meshes embedded in an inorganic lime-mortar matrix. The new system will provide a more sustainable and cost‐effective alternative and will provide a more reliable solution that can be engineered to meet the specific performance criteria of masonry buildings.