A Novel and Sustainable Application of Basalt Fibers for Strengthening Unreinforced Masonry Walls

Abstract

This paper presents the first results of a study aimed at improving the seismic behavior of unreinforced masonry walls by a novel and sustainable application of basalt fibers. Five masonry panels were tested under out-of-plane actions, one of the common way of failure for masonry walls during an earthquake. Three of them were dry-strengthened by using two different techniques (a “lozenge” stitching and a “reticulum” one), while two unreinforced panels were used as reference. Besides, two other bigger masonry walls were dry-reinforced by “lozenge” stitching and vertical ropes and were tested by putting them horizontally and then loaded. The results indicate the effectiveness of this dry retrofitting system, increasing the performance of masonry wall specimens under out-of-plane actions. Besides, this technique potentially appears fully sustainable, because it is cheap, compatible, reversible, fire, and chemical resistant, it improves but not replaces original materials and, finally, it does not substantially use synthetic adhesives. This last point is very important both for preserving the health of the applicators and in case of fire-load, where synthetic adhesive often fail.

Keywords

• basalt fibers
• dry strengthening techniques
• experimental tests
• out-of-plane loads
• sustainable retrofitting
• unreinforced masonry