Experimental Assessment of a Seismic Strengthening Solution for Stone Masonry Walls Using a Wooden Structure

Abstract

This paper aims at assessing the efficiency of a strengthening procedure using wooden grids applied to stone masonry walls, built and tested in laboratory conditions. The walls were first tested under cyclic horizontal loads to simulate the effects of horizontal seismic action. The experimental response allowed evaluating the cyclic behavior and estimating strength, stiffness, energy dissipation and available ductility of the walls in their original conditions. Afterwards, the walls were retrofitted and further strengthened using an envelope wooden grid to provide external confinement and adopting two different schemes for the connections between the wooden bars. Walls were tested again using the same setup, loading and boundary conditions. Test results are briefly presented, discussed and finally compared in order to assess the effectiveness of the applied strengthening solution. Results are quite encouraging as demonstrated by the significant increase of available ductility and amount of dissipated energy.